Abdimi Mallaḥa – A contemporary of R. Ḥiyya b. Abba and Jacob b. Aḥa, who was one of the numerous class of scholars engaged in handicraft (Yer. B. M. iv. 9d; Yer. Suk. ii. 53a). S. M.
Abdimus ben R. Jose – One of the variants of the popular name of R. Menahem ben R. Jose. The other forms are Abirodimus, Avradimus, Vradimas, and Vradimus. For the etymology of the name see Jastrow, "Dict." i. 375.Bibliography: Yer. Yeb. i. 2b; Yer....
ABDON – 1. One of the last of the Ephraimite judges; a son of Hillel of Pirathon. He aided in restoring order in central Israel after the disastrous feud with Jephtha and the Gileadites (Judges, xii. 13-15). 2. A family of the tribe of...
ABDON – A city in the domain of Asher, given to the Levites, Bene Gershon (Josh. xxi. 30, and in the corresponding list of I Chron. vi. 74). Identified by Guérin with Abdeh, to the north of Acre.G. B. L.
ABDON, MOSES BEN REUBEN – Rabbi at Rome in 1543, and a member of the communal board of administrators (stewards of the ghetto) up to the year 1564. In 1558 he, with other prominent Jews of Rome, guaranteed to refund to Elijah Corcos the sum of 1,000...
ABDUCTION – Rabbinical Presentation. Talmudic jurisprudence bases the decree prohibiting this offense upon the eighth of the Ten Commandments, which it interprets as meaning "Thou shalt not steal [a human being]." The rabbis argue that the...
ABD-UL-ḤAMID II. – Thirty-fourth Ottoman sultan; born Sept. 22, 1842; succeeded his brother, Murad V., Aug. 31, 1876. The Turkish Jews rightly regard his reign as the inauguration and guaranty of their prosperous condition in the Turkish empire....
ABD-UL-MALIK – See Abd al-Malik.
ABD-UL-MEJID – Sultan of Turkey, 1839-61. If the Jews of Turkey owe their deliverance from the unremitting outrages and excesses of the janizaries to Sultan Mahmoud II., they are equally indebted to Abd-ul-Mejid for their recent political...
ABD-UL-MESIH – See Asher ben Levi.
ABEDNEGO – The name given to Azariah, one of Daniel's three companions at the court of Nebuchadnezzar. The name is evidently a corruption of Abed Nebo ( ), "Servant of [the Babylonian god] Nebo," a name found (written in both the cuneiform...
ABEL – Biblical Data: The younger brother of Cain and the second son of Adam and Eve. He was the first shepherd, while Cain was a tiller of the soil. The writer of Gen. iv. tells us that when the brothers came as a matter of course to...
ABEL – Prefixed to six names of places, cognate with the Assyrian abalu (to be full, fruitful), and its probable derivatives ablutum (fulness) and ublu (vermin); Delitzsch, "Assyrisches Handw." p.7. J. D. P.
ABEL-BETH-MAACHAH – A place-name occurring six times in the Old Testament. The question whether Abel was one place and Beth-maachah another, or whether Abel-bethmaachah must be regarded as a single locality, is open to doubt. The name occurs in...
ABEL-CHERAMIM – Mentioned only in Judges, xi. 33 (a Deuteronomistic document) as the place where Jephthah paused in his pursuit and slaughter of the Ammonites. According to Eusebius and Jerome ("Onomastica Sacra," ed. Lagarde, 2d ed.,96, 10;...
ABEL-MAIM – A tract in Upper Galilee, now known as Abil-el-Ḳamḥ, taken by the Syrians under Ben-hadad (II Chron. xvi. 4). In the corresponding list of I Kings, xv. 20 it figures as Abel-beth-maachah, which town was taken by the Assyrians...
ABEL-MEHOLAH – The name occurs three times in the Old Testament: (1) In Judges, vii. 22 it is stated that Gideon followed the Midianites as far as the "lip" of Abel-meholah under (i.e., near) Tabbath. It has been conjectured that this "lip" is...
ABEL-MIZRAIM – Occurs only in Genesis (l. 11). It is interpreted by Septuagint, Vulgate, and the Peshito (followed by A. V.) as "Mourning of the Egyptians," or "of Egypt"; and there can be no doubt that it was intended to suggest a connection...
ABEL-SHITTIM – Found only in Num. xxxiii. 49; but Ha-Shittim ("The Acacias"), evidently the same place, is mentioned in Num. xxv. 1, Josh. iii. 1, and Micah, vi. 5. It is clear from these passages that this locality was a town, or perhaps a...
ABEL, SOLOMON BEN ḲALMAN HALEVI – Russian educator and ethical writer; born March 11, 1857, at Novomyesto-Sugint (Neustadt), district of Rossieny, government of Kovno, Russia; died at Telsh, government of Kovno, Oct. 12, 1886. His success as a teacher at the...
ABELARD, PETER – French scholastic, philosopher, and theologian—the boldest thinker of the twelfth century; born 1079 in a small village near Nantes, France; died 1142 at the priory of St. Marcel near Châlons-sur-Saône. Abelard was one of the...
ABELE, ABRAHAM COHEN, OF KALISZ – See Abraham Abele Gombiner.
ABELE ZION – According to Jost and others, those Karaites who, after the capture of Jerusalem by the Crusaders, left the Holy City, and settling in Constantinople adopted this name in memory of their beloved former home. This is denied by...
ABELES, MARCUS – Physician and instructor (privat-docent) at the University of Vienna; born at Nedraschitz, Bohemia, in 1837; died at Vienna, Dec. 31, 1894. Having completed a classical course at Prague he was matriculated at the Vienna...
ABELES, SIMON – A supposed martyr of the Roman Catholic Church in Prague. According tothe report of the Jesuit John Eder, he was killed by his father, Lazarus Abeles, March 21, 1694, because he persisted in his desire to embrace the Christian...