SHUSHAN (SUSA) PURIM – Name given to the day which follows Purim—i.e., to the 15th of Adar, on which day, according to the Book of Esther (ix. 18), the Purim festival is held in Shushan. As a matter of fact, the 15th of Adar is Purim day not only at...
SHUSSLOWITZ, JUDAH LÖB – Russian scholar; lived at Shklov in the nineteenth century. He was the author of "Oẓar ha-Shemot," a concordance of the proper names found in the Bible, forming a supplement to the general Biblical concordance published at Wilna...
SHYLOCK – Character in Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice." Shylock is represented as making a wager with Antonio, a merchant of Venice, setting the return of a loan of 3,000 ducats against a pound of flesh to be forfeited by...
SI'A (V11p317001.jpg), LEON JUDAH ARYEH (NASR AL DIN) – Physician in Constantinople, and a friend of Jewish science; lived before 1633. He translated Judah ha-Levi's "Cuzari" and Baḥya's "Ḥobot ha-Lebabot" from Arabic into Latin, which his friend Jacob Roman intended to print...
SIBBECHAI – Captain under David who came from the town of Shushan, near Ephrath-Bethlehem. He distinguished himself by overcoming a Philistine giant (II Sam. xxi. 18; I Chron. xx. 4). He is mentioned also in I Chron. xi. 29, xxvii. 11, as...
SIBERIA – Russian territory in northern Asia, extending from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, and from the Arctic Sea to the Chinese frontier, with a total population (1902) of 6,276,226, including 31,380 Jews. As a place of...
SIBLONOT – Talmudic term for gifts presented to a bride by the bridegroom or by the parents. According to some authorities, the word is derived from the Greek σύμβολον, which means "gift or payment made in token of something" (Kohut,...
SIBYL – Number. Woman who prophesied, while in a state of frenzy, under the supposed inspiration of a deity. In the Jewish sense of persons who felt themselves spiritually impelled to speak to the people in the name of God, prophets...
SICARII – Term applied, in the decades immediately preceding the destruction of Jerusalem, to the jewish Zealots who attempted to expel the Romans and their partizans from the country, even resorting to murder to attain their object....
SICHEL, JULES – French oculist; born at Frankfort-on-the-Main 1802; died at Paris Nov. 14, 1868. He studied medicine at Berlin (M. D. 1825), and took a postgraduate course at Paris. In 1836 he established in the latter city an ophthalmic clinic...
SICHEL, NATHANEEL – German painter; born at Mayence Jan. 8, 1843. He studied in Munich at the Royal Academy of Art (1859-62) under Julius Schrader. In 1863 his picture entitled "Joseph Explains the Dreams of Pharaoh" won him a scholarship which...
SICILY – Large island in the Mediterranean Sea, southwest of Italy, to which it belongs and from which it is separated by the Strait of Messina. The earliest trace of Jews in Sicily dates from the end of the sixth century, when, at the...
SICK, VISITING THE – To visit the sick in order to show them sympathy, cheer them, and aid and relieve them in their suffering is declared by the Rabbis to be a duty incumbent upon every Jew, even if the sick one is a Gentile (Giṭ. 61a). While there...
SID, SIDI – Common family name among Eastern Jews, borne by several rabbinical authors.Abraham Moses Sid: Servian rabbinical author; born at Nish 1842; died there 1876. He wrote many works, of which the only ones printed are the following:...
SIDDIM, VALE OF – The etymology of "Siddim" is uncertain (see G. A. Smith, "Historical Geog. of the Holy Land," p. 503), though Targ. Onḳ. renders it "vale of fields." It is mentioned in Gen. xiv. 3, 8, 10, verse 3 identifying it with the Dead...
SIDDUR – See Prayer-Books.
SIDON – See Ẓidon.
SIDON, SIMON – Hungarian rabbi and author; born at Nadas Jan. 23, 1815; died at Tyrnau Dec. 18, 1891. His father came from Kanitz in Moravia, wherefore he signed himself "Simeon ," in which the latter name was misread by Steinschneider ("Cat....
SIDRA – Term, the original meaning of which is "order" or "arrangement," frequently used in both Talmuds to denote a section of the Bible read either in the synagogue or in the school. In the statement "Rab read a sidra before Rabbi"...
SIEBENBERGER, ISAAC BEN DAVID – Russian Hebraist; died at Warsaw April 2, 1879. He occupied himself especially with apocryphal literature, his translations into Hebrew and Judæo-German including the following: "Ḥayye Ṭobiyah" (Warsaw, 1839), a translation of...
SIEGEL, HENRY – American merchant; born at Eubigheim, Germany, March 17, 1852. At the age of fifteen he emigrated to the United States and entered on a commercial career, being employed as a clerk by various firms in Washington, D. C.,...
SIEGFRIED, KARL – German Protestant theologian; born at Magdeburg Jan. 22, 1830; died at Jena Jan. 9, 1903. In 1875 he became professor of theology at the University of Jena, and in 1892 received the title of "Geheimer-Kirchenrat."Of Siegfried's...
SIESBY, GOTTLIEB – Danish poet and editor; born in Copenhagen May 4, 1803; died there Nov. 28, 1884; brother of Oskar Siesby. His first publication was a collection of poems entitled "Lyriske Forsóg," which appeared in Copenhagen in 1826.Later he...
SIESBY, OSKAR – Danish philologist; born in Ebeltoft, Jutland, July 19, 1833; brother of Gottlieb Siesby. He graduated from the University of Copenhagen (B.A. 1850), and then took up the study of philology, passing in 1856 the
SIFRA – Authorship. Halakic midrash to Leviticus. It is frequently quoted in the Talmud, and the study of it followed that of the Mishnah, as appears from Tanḥuma, quoted in "Or Zarua'," i. 7b. Like Leviticus itself, the midrash is...