SIPPURIM (MA'ASIYYOT), ḤASIDIC – Stories, legends, or tales related by, or of, the Ḥasidic "rebbes" (rabbis)—the "ẓaddiḳim," or "ḳedoshim," as they are sometimes called; or, in Judæo-German, the "gute Yiden." These sippurim are to be distinguished from those...
SIRACH, THE WISDOM OF JESUS THE SON OF – Names. Among the books of the Greek Bible is one entitled Σοφία Ἰησοῦ ϒἱοῦ Σιράχ (Codices Sinaiticus and Alexandrinus) or simply Σοφία Σειρáχ (Codex Vaticanus). The Greek Church Fathers called it also "The All-Virtuous Wisdom"...
SIRACH, PSEUDO- – See Ben Sira, Alphabet of.
SIRILLO, SOLOMON – Spanish Talmudist of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. He was one of the exiles of 1492, and settled at Safed, where he held a discussion with Jacob Berab over a decision concerning meat (Samuel of Modena, Responsa, No....
SIRKES, JOEL B. SAMUEL – Polish rabbi; born at Lublin in 1561; died at Cracow, 1640. At the age of fourteen he was sent to the yeshibah of Solomon ben Judah. After remaining there some time he went to Brest-Litovsk, where he attended the yeshibah of R....
SISERA – General of the army of King Jabin of Hazor. According to Judges iv. 9 et seq., he invaded the northern part of Judea in the time of Deborah, the prophetess and judge. Upon Deborah's order Barak took 10,000 men and went out to...
SISTERHOODS OF PERSONAL SERVICE – Associations of female charity-workers who devote time to the care of the needy and the distressed. A sermon delivered by Dr. Gustav Gottheil in 1887, in Temple Emanu-El, New York city, was the direct cause of the founding of a...
SIWAN – Third ecclesiastical and ninth civil month. It has thirty days, and coincides, approximately, with the Roman month of June. On Siwan 3, 4, and 5 ( = "the three days of the bounds") are commemorated the three days' preparation...
SIXTUS SENENSIS – Italian convert to Christianity and anti-Talmudic agitator; born at Sienna (whence his name) in 1520; died in 1569. After his conversion Sixtus entered the Franciscan order, but soon after, being charged with heterodoxy, he was...
SIYYUM – The formal ceremonial act of completing the writing of a scroll of the Law, or the formal conclusion of the study of a division ("massekta") of the Mishnah or Talmud. In the former case the ceremony is called siyyum ha-Sefer; in...
SKEPTIC – In a specific sense, one who remains in a state of doubt, declaring all positive truth, religiousor philosophical, to be unattainable to man. This type of skeptic can scarcely be found in Judaism. However bold the Jewish...
SKREINKA, LAZAR – Hungarian scholar; lived in the middle of the nineteenth century. He devoted himself to teaching and became the principal of the Jewish school which had been founded at Arad by Aaron Chorin, whom he assisted in arousing in that...
SKUTECZKY, DAMIANUS – Hungarian genre and portrait painter; born at Kis-Györ Feb. 9, 1850. After he had studied at the Kunstakademie under Geiger, a state scholarship enabled him to go to Italy, where he settled at Venice. He had already acquired a...
SLANDER – Poem Written on the Occasion of a Siyyum, Italian, Seventeenth Century.(In the United States National Museum, Washington, D. C.)False and malicious defamation of another's reputation and character, tending to disgrace him in the...
SLAVE-TRADE – Trading in slaves was permitted by all ancient and medieval legislations; even Christian Europe allowed it down to the thirteenth century. At an early stage traffic in Jewish slaves was forbidden to Jews, but there appears to...
SLAVES AND SLAVERY – The Hebrew word "'ebed" really means "slave"; but the English Bible renders it "servant" (a) where the word is used figuratively, pious men being "servants of the Lord" (Isa. xx. 3), and courtiers "servants of the king" (Jer....
SLOMAN, CHARLES – English composer, and singer of comic songs; born about 1808; died in London July 21, 1870. He composed "Sacred Strains and Hymns" (London, 1860), and a number of songs, among which may be mentioned "Charming Sue," "Daughter of...
SLOMAN, HENRY – English actor; born in Rochester, England, 1793; died there Aug., 1873. He was a favorite comedian during Glossop's management of the Coburg Theatre, and he gained celebrity in the character of Watty Wagstaff in "Edward the...
SLONIḲ, BENJAMIN AARON B. ABRAHAM – Polish Talmudist; born about 1550; died after 1619. His signature appears invariably as "Benjamin Aaron ben Abraham ," the last name in which Steinschneider ("Cat. Bodl." col. 786) reads "Salniḳ" or "Sloniḳ," and Wolf ("Bibl....
SLONIM – District town in the government of Grodno, Russia; it became part of Lithuania in 1316. Jews probably lived in Slonim under Grand Duke Gedimin and his followers, although the first documentary evidence that a Jewish community...
SLONIMSKI, ḤAYYIM SELIG – Russian author, scientist, and inventor; born in Byelostok March 31, 1810; died in Warsaw May 15, 1904. Slonimski was the first to teach the Jews in eastern Europe popular science through the medium of the Hebrew language, into...
SLONIMSKI, LEONID ZINOVYEVICH – Russian publicist; born in 1852; son of Ḥayyim Selig Slonimski. At the age of twenty he began contributing sociological and legal articles to various Russian journals, and since 1882 he has been a permanent contributor to the...
SLOUSCHZ, DAVID SOLOMON – Russian rabbi and preacher; born at Odessa Sept. 11, 1852. Having received an elementary education in his native town, Slouschz at the age of fourteen went to Minsk, and studied in the yeshibah there for two years. Then he...
SLOUSCHZ, NAHUM – Russian Hebrew litterateur; born at Odessa Nov., 1872. He was educated at the common school of his native city, and, in rabbinics, by his father. When only nineteen years of age he was sent to Palestine by the Chovevei Zion...
SLUCKI, DAVID – Hebrew scholar of Warsaw; died there between 1870 and 1880. Besides his edition of David Franco Mendes' "Gemul 'Atalyah" (Warsaw, 1860) and of Pappenheim's "Agadat Arba' Kosot" (ib. 1863), to both of which works he added notes...