NINEVEH – City of Assyria. The form of its name is derived from the Masoretic text. It answers as nearly as possible to the native Assyrian form "Ninua." The origin of the name is obscure. Possibly it meant originally the seat of Ishtar,...
NING-PO – See China.
NIPPUR – Ancient name of a great city in central Babylonia whose ruined site is now known as Nuffar (Niffer), which is the same word in an Arabicized form. It is one of the oldest cities in the world at present identifiable by name and...
NISAN – First ecclesiastical and seventh civil month (Neh. ii. 1; Esth. iii. 7). In the earlier Biblical books it is designated "Ḥodesh ha-Abib" (month of the harvest). It is regarded as a sacred month because, according to a tradition,...
NISH (NISSA) – City of Servia on the Nissava. Its Jewish community dates from the beginning of the eighteenth century, as is shown by a question put to Rabbi Moses Amarillo of Salonica by Gershon, the first chief rabbi of Nish, who had been...
NISHMAT – Literally, "the soul of." A part of the liturgy which on Sabbaths and festivals leads up to the short benediction ("yishtabbaḥ") after the Psalms and other Biblical poetry of the early morning service. Nishmat, together with...
NISIBIS – City in northeastern Mesopotamia, in the ancient province of Migdonia. The Biblical Accad (Gen. x. 10) is rendered "Neẓibin" (Nisibis) by the Targumim of pseudo-Jonathan and Jerusalem; but the Targum of Jonathan renders Canneh...
NISSEN (NISSEN-SALOMAN), HENRIETTE – Swedish singer; born in Göteborg March 12, 1819; died in Harzburg Aug. 27, 1879. She studied pianoforte under Chopin (1839), and singing under Manuel Garcia at Paris. She made her début at the Italian opera in Paris Nov. 12,...
NISSI BEN NOAH – Karaite scholar; lived at Bassora, later at Jerusalem, in the eighth century. He is believed to have been the son of Abu Nissi Noah, who is given in the Karaite tradition as a contemporary and senior of Anan. In the introduction...
NISSIM BENVENISTE, DON – Spanish scholar of the fifteenth century. His halakic consultations with Isaac Aboab were published, under the title "She'elah u-Teshubah," by Abraham Meldola in the "Shib'ah 'Enayim" (Leghorn, 1745).Bibliography:...
NISSIM, ḤAYYIM B. ELIJAH – Turkish rabbi; probably lived in the second half of the eighteenth century. He was the author of "Maẓa Ḥayyim," homilies and comments on the Pentateuch. It was published, together with some additions, by his son Samuel b. Ḥayyim...
NISSIM BEN JACOB BEN NISSIM IBN SHAHIN – African Talmud exegete and moralist; lived during the first half of the eleventh century in Kairwan. He received his early instruction from his father, Jacob ben Nissim, president of the yeshibah of Kairwan. After Ḥushiel ben...
NISSIM BEN MOSES OF MARSEILLES – Philosopher of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. He was the author of a philosophical commentary on the Pentateuch, written about 1306, when the struggle between the Orthodox and the friends of philosophy was at its...