SAMBATION, SANBATION, SABBATION (SAMBAṬYON) – Earliest Mention. In rabbinical literature the river across which the ten tribes were transported by Shalmaneser, King of Assyria, and about which so many legends subsequently accumulated that it was considered by some scholars...
SAMEGAH (SAMIGAH), JOSEPH BEN BENJAMIN – Turkish Talmudist and cabalist of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; born at Salonica; died June 6, 1629, at Venice, where he was rabbi and head of the yeshibah. It appears from Isaac Ḥayyim Cantarini's "Paḥad Yiẓḥaḳ" (p....
SAMEK – The fifteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Its name may be connected with "samek" ="prop," "support." On the original shape of the letter see Alphabet. "Samek" belongs to the group of sibilants, with other members of which it...
SAMEK AND PE – See Games and Sports.
SAMELSOHN, JULIUS – German ophthalmologist; born at Marienburg, West Prussia, April 14, 1841; died at Cologne March 7, 1899. Educated at the universities of Breslau and Berlin (M.D. 1864), he in 1867 settled as an ophthalmologist in Cologne....
SAMFIELD, M. – American rabbi; born at Markstift, Bavaria, 1846. He received his education from his father, at the Talmudical school of Rabbi Lazarus Ottensoser at Hochstädt, at the public school in Fürth, at the University of Würzburg...
SAMILER (SMIELER), A. G. (ELIAKIM GÖTZEL; – Russian Talmudist and a member of a prominent rabbinical family; born in Smiela about 1780; died at Brody July 17, 1854. He devoted special attention to the historical setting in rabbinical literature and wrote a number of...
SAMMTER, ASHER – German rabbi; born at Derenburg, near Halberstadt, Jan. 1, 1807; died at Berlin Feb. 5, 1887. From 1837 to 1854 he was rabbi and preacher in Liegnitz, Prussian Silesia, where he introduced German preaching and confirmation; from...
SAMOSCZ, DAVID – German author of Hebrew books for the young; born at Kempen, province of Posen, Dec. 29, 1789; died at Breslau April 29, 1864. He went at an early age to Breslau, where he was a tutor and private teacher until 1822, when he...
SAMSON – Biblical Data: One of the judges of Israel, whose life and acts are recorded in Judges xiii.-xvi. At a period when Israel was under the oppression of the Philistines the angel of the Lord appeared to Manoah, a man of Dan, of the...
SAMSON AND THE SAMSON SCHOOL – See Wolfenböttel.
SAMSON BEN ABRAHAM OF SENS – French tosafist; born about 1150; died at Acre about 1230. His birthplace was probably Falaise, Calvados, where lived his grandfather, the tosafist Samson ben Joseph, called "the Elder." Samson ben Abraham was designated also...
SAMSON BEN ELIEZER – German "sofer" (scribe) of the fourteenth century; generally called Baruk she-Amar, from the initial words of the blessing which he delighted to repeat, even in boyhood, at the early morning service. He was born in Saxony, but...
SAMSON BEN ISAAC OF CHINON – French Talmudist; lived at Chinon between 1260 and 1330. In Talmudic literature he is generally called after his native place, Chinon (Hebr. ), and sometimes by the abbreviation MaHaRShaḲ. He was a contemporary of Perez Kohen...
SAMSON BEN JOSEPH OF FALAISE – Tosafist of the twelfth century; grandfather of the tosafists Isaac ben Abraham of Dampierre and Samson of Sens. Jacob Tam, with whom he carried on a scientific correspondence, held him in high esteem.Samson was the author of...
SAMSON BEN SAMSON – French tosafist; flourished at the end of the twelfth and in the first half of the thirteenth century. Many of his explanations are found in the tosafot to the Talmud. He is mentioned also as a Biblical commentator. Samson was a...
SAMUDA – Old Spanish, and Portuguese family, identified for some generations with the communal affairs of the London Jewry. The first member to settle in England was the physician and scientist Isaac de Sequeyra Samuda. In 1728 he...
SAMUEL – Biblical Data: Samuel was the son of Elkanah and Hannah, of Ramathaim-zophim, in the hill-country of Ephraim (I Sam. i. 1). He was born while Eli was judge. Devoted to Yhwh in fulfilment of a vow made by his mother, who had long...
SAMUEL, BOOKS OF – Biblical Data: Two books in the second great division of the canon, the "Nebi'im," or Prophets, and, more specifically, in the former of its subdivisions, the "Nebi'im Rishonim," or Earlier, Prophets, following upon Joshua and...
SAMUEL, MIDRASH TO – Midrash Shemu'el, a haggadic midrash on the books of Samuel, is quoted for the first time by Rashi in his commentary on I Sam. ii. 30. In his "Ha-Pardes" (ed. Constantinople, p. 24b) Rashi again quotes from this midrash (xvii....
SAMUEL – See Samael.
SAMUEL – Tax-gatherer and treasurer to King Ferdinand IV. of Castile (1295-1312); born in Andalusia. He was hated by the queen mother D. Maria de Molina because, according to Spanish historians who were friendly toward her, he had become...
SAMUEL (SANWEL) BEN AARON BENJAMIN – Scribe at Worms in the seventeenth century. After the fire of 1689 (Lewysohn, "Nafshot Ẓaddiḳim," p. 73, Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1855) he left Worms and settled in Hamburg. He was the author of "Ḥidah Mezuḳḳaḳah u-Ẓerufah," a...
SAMUEL BEN ABBA – Palestinian amora of the latter half of the third century. Although a pupil of Johanan, he did not receive ordination (Yer. Bik. 65c). He declined to permit Hela and Jacob to do him honor by rising before him (ib.). He appears...
SAMUEL BEN ABBAHU – Babylonian amora of the fourth century. He engaged in a ritual controversy with R. Aḥai in regard to the use of the Circassian goat as food. Samuel was disposed to permit it to be eaten, but R. Aḥai opposed him. Finally it...