Dictionary of Jewish Lore and Legend

Alan Unterman

• Publisher: Thames and Hudson Ltd
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN: 9780500771020
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Jewish History
• Index: History

This richly-illustrated dictionary captures the richness and vitality of Jewish religion and culture: the web of legend and folklore crucial to understanding Judaism. The result is a vital and long-needed companion for anyone seeking to understand the Jewish world now and in past centuries. It describes all the main characters and the legends that have grown up around them; Jewish methods of Biblical interpretation; the framework of Jewish law, literature and poetry; the festivals of the Jewish Year; the different languages and subgroups within the community; and the many countries that Jews have lived in, as well as the importance of the Holy Land. Also revealed is a comprehensive picture of another side of Judaism. This is a world populated by angels and demons; sages and Kabbalists; creatures unknown to zoologists; lucky and unlucky days and numbers; and the hope for a Messianic era when the dead will arise, and man will live in harmony with nature.

The Dictionary

Aaron First Israelite HIGH PRIEST, and brother of Moses and Miriam. Aaron is depicted as a lover of peace who would go in turn to each of the two parties to a quarrel and, by telling a white lie, would apologize in the name of the other party; when they next met, their quarrel was over because each believed the other had apologized. This characteristic made Aaron suitable as High Priest, whose sacrifices brought peace between Israel and their father in heaven. He possessed a miraculous rod, created at twilight on the sixth day of creation (see TETRAGRAMMATON), which burst into almond blossom overnight to vindicate him when his suitability as High Priest was challenged (Num. 17). When he died, it was through a kiss of the shekhinah, the easiest form of death, and God Himself prepared his funeral bier and a golden candelabrum to light the way. He was also very popular among the Israelites, and this explains why ‘all the House of Israel’ mourned him (Num. 20:29). Symbolic of the great loss his death represented was the cessation of the Pillar of Cloud and of Fire, which until then had guided the Israelites through the desert because of Aaron’s merits. Although Aaron was responsible for making the GOLDEN CALF, he did so because he did not want the Israelites to be guilty of the greater sin of killing their High Priest if he refused. Aaron is one of the Seven Faithful Shepherds of Israel, a title given to outstanding biblical leaders, who are invited to the sukkah each evening as spiritual guests. See also TABERNACLE.

Moses, accompanied by Aaron, spreads out his hands to heaven outside the city gates to end the plague of hail, the seventh of the Ten Plagues (14c. Spanish haggadah).

Aaron of Baghdad (9c.) Babylonian mystic, also known as Abu Aaron Ben Samuel Ha-Nasi, who brought the mystical traditions of the East to Italy. Aaron’s pupils, particularly members of the Kalonymus family, carried his teachings into Germany where they became the basis of the German pietist movement known as Chasidei Ashkenaz. Many legends are recorded about Aaron’s life, particularly in the medieval Chronicle of Ahimaaz. For instance, when a lion ate the ass that turned his father’s mill, Aaron harnessed the lion to grind the corn. His father disapproved of this exploitation of the ‘king of beasts’ and sent Aaron into exile. On his wanderings he found the son of a Spanish Jew who had been turned into a donkey by witchcraft, so he turned him back into a human and sent him home to his family. On another occasion he came across a young man who was an excellent prayer leader, but who never mentioned the name of God in his prayers. Aaron realized that this youth was really a dead spirit, and he eventually discovered that he was being artificially kept alive by the ineffable name of God which had been inserted into the flesh of his right arm. Aaron cut out the name, and the youth’s body immediately turned to dust, like someone long dead. In Italy Aaron acted as a judge, claiming the authority only possessed by a member of the Sanhedrin in a previous age. He sentenced sinners to death and carried out the trial by ordeal of a woman suspected of adultery (sotah). Aaron is referred to as ‘the master of all secret mysteries’.

abba (Aramaic for ‘father’) A word used as a first name in the early Rabbinic period but also a title of respect and one of the names of God. Its use is illustrated in a Talmudic story about the miracle-working saint Chanan, grandson of the famous Choni Ha-Meaggel. At a time of drought children would come to him and say: ‘Abba, abba, give us rain.’ He would then pray for rain to be sent for the sake of these children who could not distinguish between God, the Abba who gives rain, and Chanan, the human abba who cannot give rain. Jewish mystics use ‘abba’ to denote the sefirah of wisdom (chokhmah) which is the ‘father’ of all the other SEFIROT. For Abba the Tall, see RAV.

Abed-Nego see HANANIAH, MISHAEL AND AZARIAH

Abel see CAIN AND ABEL

ablution (Hebrew ‘tevilah’) The use of water for purificatory purposes is a common theme of Pentateuchal legislation on ritual purity and impurity. The most important means of ablution is the total immersion in a MIKVEH, or pool of ‘living water’ as opposed to drawn water. The mikveh is usually made from a rain-water source to which an adjoining bath of tap-water is connected. Women after menstruation (see NIDDAH), converts to Judaism (see PROSELYTES) and men before YOM KIPPUR immerse themselves in a mikveh. Under the influence of the Kabbalah the custom of immersion every morning before prayers has been adopted by Chasidic Jews. It is also necessary to immerse certain types of new food utensils bought from a Gentile. Second in importance to full immersion is ritual hand washing when water is poured from a vessel over each hand in turn. This is done on waking up in the morning to remove the unclean spirit residing on the fingertips, before prayers, before eating bread, before reciting the PRIESTLY BLESSING and after visiting a cemetery or coming into contact with the dead. The water which had been poured over the hands was formerly considered a potential source of danger; it was not to be thrown out in a public place, and if it fell into the hands of witches, they could use it to harm people, so it had to be disposed of with care.

Abrabanel, Don Isaac (1437–1508) Iberian statesman and scholar. Abrabanel had to flee from Portugal in 1483, after false accusations were made against him as court treasurer. He re-established himself in Spain only to flee once again, this time to Italy, with the expulsion of Spanish Jews in 1492. As an important Bible commentator, using Christian as well as Jewish sources, Abrabanel occasionally questioned the traditional authorship of some biblical books although he subscribed to their divine origin. His own experience of the precariousness of political power led him to a critical estimation of biblical kingship and urban culture. Abrabanel put forward scriptural sources for the doctrines of the Resurrection of the Dead and the transmigration of souls. Indeed he claimed that the latter doctrine was the only way of making sense of levirate marriage and was necessitated by a belief in divine justice. In his discussion of the scriptural doctrine of the Messiah, he argued strongly for a Jewish interpretation and took issue with Christian teachings. Abrabanel’s method of Bible commentary was to ask a whole series of questions about a text before presenting his answers. Jewish folklore, in a jocular vein, holds him responsible for the ‘unbelief’ of some of his readers. It depicts a Jew sitting down after a heavy Sabbath lunch of cholent to study the Bible with Abrabanel’s commentary; he only manages to read the questions before falling asleep in his chair and never actually comes to the author’s answers which would resolve his doubts.

Abraham First PATRIARCH and founder of Hebrew MONOTHEISM, who migrated to the land of Canaan with his wife SARAH according to God’s command. Abraham came to believe in one God by reflecting on the nature of the universe and rejecting idolatry. He broke the heads of all the idols in his father’s idol shop except for the largest, before which he left an offering. His father was amazed at what looked like a fight among the idols, so Abraham asked him how he could worship statues if they were incapable of such activity. For his heretical views he was forced by King Nimrod into the fiery furnace, from which he emerged unscathed. As a sign of his COVENANT with God, Abraham was commanded to undergo CIRCUMCISION when he was already very old, and after he circumcised himself, Sarah miraculously gave birth to a son, ISAAC. One of the ten trials of faith that God put Abraham through was the demand to offer up his son as a sacrifice to God (see AKEDAH). Abraham kept the whole torah before it was revealed by God, including the many Rabbinic additions. He also instituted the practice of reciting the morning prayers (see SHACHARIT). His especially compassionate character manifested itself in his HOSPITALITY, in his attempt to persuade God not to destroy Sodom despite the wickedness of its citizens, and in the magical stone he wore round his neck with which he cured the sick. Abraham was buried in the Cave of MACHPELAH. He now sits at the gates of gehinnom and saves those who are circumcised from its fires. Abraham was instructed by an angel in the secrets of the Hebrew language and made a golem, and the early mystical work Sefer Yetzirah is ascribed to his authorship. All converts to Judaism have Abraham as their spiritual father because he was the first missionary on behalf of monotheism (Gen. 12:5), and they enter the divine covenant originally made with him. Male proselytes usually take ‘Abraham’ as their Hebrew name. In each generation there are thirty people who are as righteous as Abraham and who sustain the world. See also ZEKHUT AVOT.

Wall painting from the 3c. CE Dura Europos synagogue of Abraham with his hands crossed in prayer.

Abraham Ben David of Posquières (c. 1125–98) Provençal rabbi and mystic, commonly known as the Rabad. He was the most important critic of Moses Maimonides and defended the unsophisticated beliefs of Jewish pietists against Maimonides’ philosophical strictures. He argued that some of those who believed in the corporeality of God, although mistaken, were better men than Maimonides and not to be considered as heretics. The prophet Elijah revealed himself to the Rabad, and he claimed that the Holy Spirit (see RUACH HA-KODESH) had appeared over a number of years in his house of study. Maimonides said that no one had ever outwitted him except for Rabbi Abraham, whom he described as a ‘craftsman with only one skill’.

Absalom A son of King DAVID who led a popular rebellion against his father (II Sam. 15). When David’s army crushed the revolt, Absalom was killed after he was caught in a tree by his long hair while trying to escape. He attempted to cut his hair with a sword to release himself but saw the abyss of gehinnom...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• About the Author
• Contents
• Dedication
• Introduction
• Abbreviations
• The Dictionary
• Further Reading
• Sources of the Illustrations
• Copyright