RIGA – Capital of the government of Livonia, Russia; situated on the River Düna, about 6 miles from its mouth.Jews are first mentioned in the public documents of Livonia of 1560. In the negotiations between the city and King Sigismund...
RIGHT OF EMINENT DOMAIN – The inherent power of the sovereign or state to take private property, generally land, for public use, especially for a highway, with or without compensation. The Mishnah says of the king in mentioning his powers: "He leads the...
RIGHT AND LEFT – Biblical Data: The right side of things is recognized in many ways as better than the left. The south and north sides of the earth are distinguished as "yamin" (right) and "sem'ol' (left; Job xxiii. 9), the right being the...
RIGHT AND RIGHTEOUSNESS – Renderings given in the English versions of the Hebrew root "ẓadaḳ" and its derivatives "ẓaddiḳ," "ẓedeḳ," "ẓedaḳh." The use of "righteous" as a translation for "yashar" (="upright") is less frequent. "Just," "justice,"...
RIGHT OF WAY – The law in general distinguishes between the right of private way (that is, A's right to pass over a certain strip of B's land) and that of public way (the right of everybody to pass over a strip of land which may or may not be...
RIGOTZ, MOSES – See Concordance, Talmudical.
RIME – The early Hebrews have been credited with the knowledge and use of rime. Judah Provencal, according to Azariah dei Rossi ("Me'or 'Enayim," v.), considered Hebrew poetry the mother of all other poetries, so that in adopting the...
RIMINI – Italian town situated on the Adriatic, about 28 miles east-southeast of Forli. It is noted as the place where Gershon Soncino produced a number of works in the period 1521 to 1526. Here he printed the third and rarest edition of...
RIMMON – 1. Town of the tribe of Zebulun, on the northeast frontier (Josh. xix. 13, R. V.); the Septuagint renders it, more correctly, "Rimonah." Probably it is identical with the Levite city of Rimmon (R. V. "Rimmono"; I Chron. vi. 77),...
RIMOS (REMOS), MOSES – Physician, poet, and martyr; born at Palma, Majorca, about 1406; died at Palermo 1430. He was a relative of the Moses Rimos who was known by the name "El Pergaminero" = "the parchment manufacturer," and who, in 1391, was...
RINDFLEISCH – German nobleman of Röttingen, Franconia; persecutor of the Jews in the thirteenth century. During the civil war waged between Adolph of Nassau and Albrecht of Austria, claimants for the imperial crown of Germany, bloody...
RING, MAX – German novelist, lyric poet, and dramatist; born Aug. 4, 1817, at Zauditz, Silesia; died March 28, 1901, at Berlin. He first attended the Jewish parochial school at Gleiwitz, and at the age of eight revealed his superior poetic...
RINGS – Ring as Symbol of Marriage by Purchase. Finger-rings, like rings for the ears and the nose, were used as ornaments by the Jews as early as the Biblical period (Ex. xxxv. 22, etc.), while seal-rings (Gen. xxxviii. 18, 25, etc.)...
RINTEL, MOSES – Australian rabbi; born in Edinburgh 1823; died at Melbourne, Victoria, 1880; son of Myer Rintel, Hebraist and Talmudical scholar. For some years Moses Rintel acted as reader to the Brighton synagogue; in 1844 he went to Sydney;...
RIPARIAN OWNERS – There being but little river navigation in the Holy Land, the Mishnah says nothing as to the rights and duties of landowners along the river-bank, except in reference to irrigation. It teaches (Giṭ. v. 8) that for the sake of...
RIQUETTI, JOSEPH SHALLIṬ BEN ELIEZER – Scholar of the seventeenth century. He spent his youth at Safed, and subsequently settled at Verona. There in 1646 he published Gerondi's book "Yiḥus ha-Ẓaddiḳim." He then published at Amsterdam a map of Palestine under the...
RISHONIM – Name applied to the authorities who lived before the one who quotes them. The designation is found in the Talmud, where it is generally used in the sense of "predecessor," or "ancestor" (Shab. 112b; Ber. 20a; Tamid 28a). In...
RITES – See Custom.
RITTANGEL, JOHANN STEPHANUS – German controversial writer; born at Forscheim, near Bamberg; died at Königsberg 1652. It is stated that he was born a Jew, became converted to Roman Catholicism, then became a Calvinist, and lastly joined the Lutheran Church....