“Maimonides ”

Cairo Genizah

Article describing the Cairo Genizah... read article

Medicine

From the beginning of their history until modern times Jews have exercised a tremendous influence on the development of medical science. They have always been solicitous in their care for the sick and held the medical profession in great esteem. In ancient times medicine and religion were closely connected. The priests were the custodians of public health. The dispute as to the propriety of human interference in sickness – regarded as divine retribution – ceased to trouble the Jews, because they came to regard the physician as the instrument through whom God could effect the cure... read article

Conditions

CONDITIONS (Heb. תְּנָאִים, tena'im).DefinitionConditions is an ambiguous word inasmuch as it refers not only to the external factors upon which the existence of an agreement is made to depend but also to the actual terms of the contract itself. Thus, one speaks of tena'ei ha-ketubbah, which really means the terms of the ketubbah. Similar ambiguities exist in English law (see G.C. Cheshire and C.H.S. Fi-foot, The Law of Contract (19605), 118ff.)... read article

Kaspi, Joseph ben Abba Mari ibn

KASPI, JOSEPH BEN ABBA MARI IBN (En Bonafoux del'Argentière; 1279–1340?), philosopher, biblical commentator, and grammarian. Motivated by an intense desire for wisdom and knowledge, and being a wealthy man, Kaspi spent most of his days traveling from one country to another, living successively in Arles, Tarascon, Aragon, Catalonia, and on the island of Majorca. Because of his admiration for *Maimonides, he left for Egypt in 1314 in order to hear explanations on the latter's Guide of the Perplexed from the author's grandchildren... read article

Creation and Cosmogony in the Bible

The Hebrew Bible commences with a majestic cosmological account of the genesis of the universe. According to Genesis 1:1–2:4a (the P account according to the documentary hypothesis), God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day. The verb brʾ used in the very first sentence of the creation story does not imply, as most traditional commentators believed, creatio ex nihilo, a concept that first appears in II Maccabees 7:28, but denotes, as it does throughout the Bible, a divine activity that is effortlessly effected. The opening sentence in the story – many commentators think (but see Cassuto, Genesis, 1, pp... read article

Ghazālī, Abu Ḥamid Muḥammad Ibn Muḥammad Al-Tūsī Al-°

GHAZĀLĪ, ABU ḤAMID MUḤAMMAD IBN MUḤAM-MAD AL-TŪSĪ AL-° (1058–1111), Persian Muslim theologian, jurist, mystic, and religious reformer, who wrote mainly in Arabic.Al-Ghazālī's best-known work is his Iḥyā' 'Ulūm al-Dīn ("Revival of the Religious Sciences," 1096–7), in which he successfully reconciled orthodox Islam and *Sufism... read article

Haggahot

HAGGAHOT (Heb. הַגָּהוֹת "glosses"; "corrections"), a term used both to mean the examination of manuscript and printed works in order to correct errors and in the sense of "glosses," i.e., notes and brief comments on the text... read article

Consumer Protection Laws

Consumer protection is a new area of law; hence, the term does not appear in classical sources of Jewish law. The meaning of the concept is implied in the term itself: our generation is one of abundance, with great demands, numerous consumers, and extensive consumption. The consumers are not organized; each one consumes for himself and his household... read article

Jewish Concepts: Articles of Faith

No Fixed Dogmas In the same sense as Christianity or Islam, Judaism can not be credited with the possession of Articles of Faith. Many attempts have indeed been made at systematizing and reducing to a fixed phraseology and sequence the contents of the Jewish religion... read article

Halakhah

DEFINITION The word "halakhah" (from the root halakh, "to go"), the legal side of Judaism (as distinct from aggadah, the name given to the nonlegal material, particularly of the rabbinic literature), embraces personal, social, national, and international relationships, and all the other practices and observances of Judaism. In the Bible the good life is frequently spoken of as a way in which men are "to go," e.g... read article

Translations & Translators

The earliest Jewish translations, apart from possible examples in the Bible, are the Greek version of the Pentateuch and, later, other books of the Bible, which were made to fill a need in the Greek-speaking Jewish community of Alexandria and other places that no longer understood the original Hebrew. Similarly, the Aramaic vernacular of Jewish settlements in Palestine and other parts of southwestern Asia explain the development of Aramaic versions of the Bible. In the 10th century *Ḥisdai ibn Shaprut was one of the main translators of Dioscorides' work from Greek to Arabic in the court of Cordoba... read article

Witness

Jewish law regarding the role of a witness in trial... read article

Mishnah

The Mishnah is a collection of rabbinic traditions that supplements, complements, clarifies and systematizes the commandments of the Torah... read article

Bloodletting

BLOODLETTING, removal of blood in treating diseases. Bloodletting is frequently mentioned in the Talmud. It was performed not by a physician but by a skilled functionary called umman or gara, whose status was less than that of a physician. The bloodletter is mentioned in various passages in the Talmud, both favorably and unfavorably (e.g., Ta'an. 21b; Kid. 82a). Some of the directives about bloodletting in the Talmud relate to specific ailments (e.g., Git. 67b; Av. Zar... read article

Midrash Ha-Gadol

MIDRASH HA-GADOL (Heb. מִדְרַשׁ הַגָּדוֹל), a 13th-century rabbinic work on the Pentateuch, emanating from Yemen and consisting mainly of excerpts of older rabbinic texts of the talmudic period. The Midrash is anonymous, but it is now certain that it was written by a native of Aden, David b. Amram *Adani. Adani writes in clear, limpid Hebrew prose, introducing each weekly portion with a proem in rhymed verse... read article

Time and Eternity

On the subject of time, Jewish medieval philosophers were divided into two broad camps: Those who subscribed basically to the Aristotelian concept of time, and those who favored a concept that goes back ultimately to Plotinus. Included among the former are Isaac Israeli, Saadiah Gaon, Abraham ibn Daud, Maimonides, and Levi b. Gershom, and among the latter are Ḥasdai Crescas and Joseph Albo. Maimonides may be taken as representative of the first group and Crescas of the second... read article

Galen (Galenus), Claudius°

GALEN (Galenus), CLAUDIUS° (131–c. 201 C.E.), prominent physician in antiquity and author of important philosophical works. Galen was born in Pergamum (Asia Minor) and died in Rome. Medieval Hebrew authors and translators regarded Galen as "the greatest physician" (gedol ha-rofe'im, rosh ha-rofe'im). A popular legend among the Jews in the Middle Ages identified Galen with the patriarch Gamaliel II, who was said to have written a handbook of medicine for Titus after the destruction of Jerusalem. This did not, however, prevent *Maimonides and other Jewish authors from sharply criticizing Galen for his attacks on the law of Moses (see R... read article

Jewish Concepts: The Stranger as a Newcomer

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Hillel ben Samuel

HILLEL BEN SAMUEL (c. 1220–c. 1295), physician, talmudic scholar, and philosopher. Since it has been held that Hillel lived in Verona, he has also been called Hillel b. Samuel of Verona; but, in fact, only his grandfather lived in that city. Little is known about Hillel's personality, place of birth, or life. It is known that he came from a rabbinic family, and that his grandfather, *Eliezer ben Samuel, was a tosafist and av bet din at Verona. Hillel is first mentioned in a legal document of 1254. He lived in Naples and then in Capua, where he practiced medicine and studied philosophy with Abraham *Abulafia... read article

Categories

CATEGORIES, in medieval Jewish philosophy the highest logical as well as metaphysical classification into which all beings are divided. *Aristotle (Categories, chs. 5–9; Metaphysics, book 5, especially chs... read article