NISSIM B. REUBEN GERONDI – Physician, astronomer, and halakist; flourished at Barcelona about 1340 to 1380. He had much to suffer at the hands of certain wealthy and powerful Jews of his community, who even slandered him before the government (Isaac b....
NISSIM (THE ELDER) IBN SHAHIN – See Jacob ben Nissim ibn Shahin.
NITER – The niter of the ancients was a mineral alkaline salt, carbonate of soda, found in great quantities in Egypt. Natron Lake and Natron Valley derive their name from its presence in them; and they are still exploited for niter as...
NITTAI OF ARBELA – Vice-president of the Sanhedrin under the nasi Joshua b. Peraḥyah at the time of John Hyrcanus. In Yer. Ḥag. ii. 76d he is called Mattai of Arbela. Arbela was a city of Galilee not far from Tiberias. No halakot of his are...
NITTEL – Judæo-German word for "Christmas"; derived from the medieval Latin "Natale Domini" (see Wetzer and Welte, "Kirchenlexikon," vii. 588); Old Latin, "Dies Natalis"; French, "Noël." Moses Isserles speaks of the custom of sending...
NIZZA, SOLOMON BEN ISAIAH BEN ELIEZER ḤAYYIM – Rabbi of Venice in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; equally prominent as sage, Talmudist, and liturgical poet. His father, Isaiah, whom he succeeded, was the author of "Derek Yashar" (Venice, 1633), on ethics, and of...
NIẒẒAḤON – See Lipmann-Mühlhausen.
NO-AMON – Name designating the city of Thebes, in Egypt, and equivalent to "No, the city of the god Amon"; found in Nah. iii. 8 (comp. Jer. xlvi. 25, where Amon is spoken of as the god of No). The current form is the later Hebrew...
NOACHIAN LAWS – See Laws, Noachian.
NOAH – Biblical Data: Son of Lamech and the ninth in descent from Adam. In the midst ofabounding corruption he alone was "righteous and blameless in his generations" and "walked with God" (Gen. vi. 9). Hence, when all his...
NOAH, ḤAYYIM HIRSCH – See Berlin, Noah Ḥayyim Ẓebi Hirsch b. Abraham Meïr.
NOAH, MORDECAI MANUEL – American politician, journalist, playwright, and philanthropist; born in Philadelphia, Pa., July 19, 1785; died in New York city March 22, 1851. He was of Portuguese Jewish descent; and his father took an active part in the War...
NOAH B. PESAḤ – Acting rabbi in Pinsk; died there in 1638. He wrote a commentary on Bereshit Rabbah under the title of "Toledot Noaḥ" (Cracow, 1634).Bibliography: Fürst, Bibl. Jud. iii. 38; Heilprin, Seder ha-Dorot, iii. 103; Benjacob, Oẓar...
NOB – City or village of priests where David received holy bread when in pressing need of food at the beginning of his persecution by Saul (I Sam. xxi. 1-9), for which nearly the whole community was put to death. It is also referred...
NOBAH – 1. Apparently, a Manassite warrior who, during the conquest of the territory east of the Jordan, made himself master of Kenath and the villages thereof and gave them his own name (Num. xxxii. 42). According to Seder 'Olam Rabbah...
NOBLE, LUIS – See Duarte, Luis.
NOGAH HA-YAREAḤ – See Periodicals.
NOLA, ELIJAH BEN JOSEPH DI – Italian physician and rabbi of the sixteenth century. In 1563 he was living in Rome, where he occupied the position of rabbi. He enjoyed a high reputation as a Talmudical authority and was consulted on halakic decisions. A...
NOLA, MENAHEM (JOHN PAUL EUSTHATIUS) – Italian convert to Christianity; born about 1540; died at Rome about 1602. Nothing is known of Nola's life before his conversion except that he was the instructor in Hebrew of Thomas Aldobrandino, brother of Pope Clement VIII.,...
NÖLDEKE, THEODOR – German Orientalist; born March 2, 1836, at Harburg. He studied Oriental languages at Göttingen, Vienna, Leyden, and Berlin; became assistant professor of Semitic languages at Göttingen in 1864; was appointed to a professorship...
NOMISM – That religious tendency which aims at the control of both social and individual life by legalism, making the law the supreme norm. The term "nomism" or "legalism" is sometimes used to imply an externalizing tendency of religion...
NONES – American family, tracing its descent from Benjamin Nones of Philadelphia, who lived at the end of the eighteenth century.Benjamin Nones: American soldier. A native of Bordeaux, he emigrated to Philadelphia about 1777, and at...
NOPH – City of ancient Egypt, mentioned in Isa. xix. 13, Jer. ii. 16, xliv. 1, xlvi. 14, and Ezek. xxx. 13, 16. All the ancient versions render it "Memphis," so that, evidently, the name has been disfigured from the more correct form...
NORDAU, MAX (SIMON) – Settles in Paris. Austrian litterateur and philosopher; born in Budapest July 29, 1849.His parents were very poor. His father, Gabriel Südfeld, had been a rabbi in Prussia, but went to Budapest as a private teacher. Max received...
NORDEN, JOSHUA D. – English soldier and adventurer; died at Graham's Town, Cape Colony, April 26, 1846. He was field commandant in the Kaffir war and a captain of yeomanry, and commanded the mounted force that was sent against the Kaffirs in 1846....