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ASTRUC DÉS GABBAI – Provençal scholar; lived at Béziers toward the end of the thirteenth century and the beginning of the fourteenth. Nothing is known of his life and his scientific activity. His name was transmitted by his relative, or perhaps by...
ASTRUC, JEAN – Physician and founder of modern Pentateuch criticism; born at Sauve, France, March 19, 1684; died in Paris May 5, 1766. His father was a Huguenot, but became a Catholic. He studied medicine and became professor of anatomy in...
ASTRUC KALONYMUS – See Kalonymus.
ASTRUC HA-LEVI OF DAROCA – Talmudic scholar; lived in Spain at the end of the fourteenth and at the beginning of the fifteenth century. He was a delegate to the famous disputation at Tortosa, in 1413, under the presidency of Pope Benedict XIII., at which...
ASTRUC DE PORTE – See Naḥmanides.
ASTRUC RAIMUCH (FRANCISCO GODFLESH, DIOSE CARNE) – See Raimuch.
ASTRUC, ZACHARIE – French sculptor, painter, and author; born at Angers, department of Maine-et-Loire, in 1839. While still a boy he left his native city to seek his fortune in the French metropolis. In 1859 he founded, in collaboration with...
ASUFOT – Collection"; that is, the name of a medieval compilation of laws, customs, habits, and practises of a religious character, similar to other medieval compendiums of a legal character. It is preserved in a unique manuscript (No....
ASUSA, ASUTA – A sentiment expressed toward one who is sneezing. In Tosef., Shab. vii. (viii.) 5 it is declared to be a forbidden heathen (Amorite) practise to wish one health ("marpe"), whereas R. Eliezer b. Zadok, of the first century, says:...
ASVERUS – See Severus.
ASYLUM – Origin and Character. —Biblical Data (ἰσυλον, "inviolable"): A place of refuge for slaves, debtors, political offenders, and criminals; a sacred spot, a sanctuary, altar, or grave, protected by the presence of a deity or other...
ASYLUMS (CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS) – See Charity.
ATAD – A place on the eastern side of the Jordan where Jacob's funeral cortège stopped and mourned for him (Gen. l. 10, 11). Tradition (Gen. ib.) assigns to this circumstance the change in the name of the place to Abel Mizraim,...
ATAKI – Town in the province of Bessarabia, Russia, on the right bank of the Dniester, opposite Mohilev. Of the 1,000 families composing its population, 832 are Jews, that have a synagogue and three prayer-houses. Formerly Ataki was a...
ATARAH – Biblical Data: A wife of Jerahmeel and the mother of Onam (I Chron. ii. 26). If Jerahmeel, as seems probable, is the name of a clan, the expression "wife" might point to an alliance (or in the case of "wives" alliances) with...
ATARGATIS – A Syrian divinity referred to in the Apocrypha. A temple of Atargatis existed in Carnion or Carnaim (I Macc. v. 24; II Macc. xii. 26), on the east side of the Jordan. Just what goddess is meant by the name has not as yet been...
ATAROTH – District in Palestine, east of the Jordan. This place is mentioned along with Dibon and Jazer as a very fertile tract of land and good for raising cattle. Reuben and Gad both asked for the land. Gad received it (Num. xxxii. 3)...
ATAROTH – The name of several towns in Palestine:1. A city on the eastern side of the Dead Sea in the land taken from Moab and given to Gad (Num. xxxii. 3). From Num. xxxii. 34 it appears that the city was rebuilt by the Gadites: a fact...
ATBASH – See Gemaṭria.
ATEL – The capital of the Chazars in the tenth century; situated about eight English miles from Astrakhan. Together with the city of Balanjara, which was equally renowned in ancient times, it is now buried under the highest of the...
ATER – 1. A family that returned with Zerubbabel (Ezra ii. 16; Neh. vii. 21), the head of which signed the covenant with Nehemiah (Neh. x. 18). In I Esd. v. 15, Ater is called Aterezias.2. Doorkeepers of the Temple, who returned with...
ATHACH – A town in Judah, to the inhabitants of which David sent a part of the spoil taken from the Amalekites (I Sam. xxx, 30). It has not been definitely identified. Several scholars consider Athach ( ) the same as Ether ( ; Josh. xv....
ATHALIAH – Daughter of Ahab (II Kings viii. 26) and, presumably, of Jezebel; also called the daughter of Omri (II Chron. xxii. 2). The political alliance of Jehoshaphat, fourth king of Judah, with Ahab, king of Israel (I Kings xxii. 2-4;...
ATHANASIUS – Bishop of Alexandria; born in 293, probably in Alexandria; died there May 2, 373. Athanasius was the greatest combatant of the Old Church. No less than twenty out of the forty-seven years of his official life (he was made bishop...
ATHEISM – A term derived from the Greek, meaning literally the "disbelief in a God." As originally used in the writings of the people that coined it, it carried the implication of non-recognition of the God or the gods acknowledged as...

ASTRUC DÉS GABBAI – Provençal scholar; lived at Béziers toward the end of the thirteenth century and the beginning of the fourteenth. Nothing is known of his life and his scientific activity. His name was transmitted by his relative, or perhaps by...

ASTRUC, JEAN – Physician and founder of modern Pentateuch criticism; born at Sauve, France, March 19, 1684; died in Paris May 5, 1766. His father was a Huguenot, but became a Catholic. He studied medicine and became professor of anatomy in...

ASTRUC KALONYMUS – See Kalonymus.

ASTRUC HA-LEVI OF DAROCA – Talmudic scholar; lived in Spain at the end of the fourteenth and at the beginning of the fifteenth century. He was a delegate to the famous disputation at Tortosa, in 1413, under the presidency of Pope Benedict XIII., at which...

ASTRUC DE PORTE – See Naḥmanides.

ASTRUC RAIMUCH (FRANCISCO GODFLESH, DIOSE CARNE) – See Raimuch.

ASTRUC, ZACHARIE – French sculptor, painter, and author; born at Angers, department of Maine-et-Loire, in 1839. While still a boy he left his native city to seek his fortune in the French metropolis. In 1859 he founded, in collaboration with...

ASUFOT – Collection"; that is, the name of a medieval compilation of laws, customs, habits, and practises of a religious character, similar to other medieval compendiums of a legal character. It is preserved in a unique manuscript (No....

ASUSA, ASUTA – A sentiment expressed toward one who is sneezing. In Tosef., Shab. vii. (viii.) 5 it is declared to be a forbidden heathen (Amorite) practise to wish one health ("marpe"), whereas R. Eliezer b. Zadok, of the first century, says:...

ASVERUS – See Severus.

ASYLUM – Origin and Character. —Biblical Data (ἰσυλον, "inviolable"): A place of refuge for slaves, debtors, political offenders, and criminals; a sacred spot, a sanctuary, altar, or grave, protected by the presence of a deity or other...

ASYLUMS (CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS) – See Charity.

ATAD – A place on the eastern side of the Jordan where Jacob's funeral cortège stopped and mourned for him (Gen. l. 10, 11). Tradition (Gen. ib.) assigns to this circumstance the change in the name of the place to Abel Mizraim,...

ATAKI – Town in the province of Bessarabia, Russia, on the right bank of the Dniester, opposite Mohilev. Of the 1,000 families composing its population, 832 are Jews, that have a synagogue and three prayer-houses. Formerly Ataki was a...

ATARAH – Biblical Data: A wife of Jerahmeel and the mother of Onam (I Chron. ii. 26). If Jerahmeel, as seems probable, is the name of a clan, the expression "wife" might point to an alliance (or in the case of "wives" alliances) with...

ATARGATIS – A Syrian divinity referred to in the Apocrypha. A temple of Atargatis existed in Carnion or Carnaim (I Macc. v. 24; II Macc. xii. 26), on the east side of the Jordan. Just what goddess is meant by the name has not as yet been...

ATAROTH – District in Palestine, east of the Jordan. This place is mentioned along with Dibon and Jazer as a very fertile tract of land and good for raising cattle. Reuben and Gad both asked for the land. Gad received it (Num. xxxii. 3)...

ATAROTH – The name of several towns in Palestine:1. A city on the eastern side of the Dead Sea in the land taken from Moab and given to Gad (Num. xxxii. 3). From Num. xxxii. 34 it appears that the city was rebuilt by the Gadites: a fact...

ATBASH – See Gemaṭria.

ATEL – The capital of the Chazars in the tenth century; situated about eight English miles from Astrakhan. Together with the city of Balanjara, which was equally renowned in ancient times, it is now buried under the highest of the...

ATER – 1. A family that returned with Zerubbabel (Ezra ii. 16; Neh. vii. 21), the head of which signed the covenant with Nehemiah (Neh. x. 18). In I Esd. v. 15, Ater is called Aterezias.2. Doorkeepers of the Temple, who returned with...

ATHACH – A town in Judah, to the inhabitants of which David sent a part of the spoil taken from the Amalekites (I Sam. xxx, 30). It has not been definitely identified. Several scholars consider Athach ( ) the same as Ether ( ; Josh. xv....

ATHALIAH – Daughter of Ahab (II Kings viii. 26) and, presumably, of Jezebel; also called the daughter of Omri (II Chron. xxii. 2). The political alliance of Jehoshaphat, fourth king of Judah, with Ahab, king of Israel (I Kings xxii. 2-4;...

ATHANASIUS – Bishop of Alexandria; born in 293, probably in Alexandria; died there May 2, 373. Athanasius was the greatest combatant of the Old Church. No less than twenty out of the forty-seven years of his official life (he was made bishop...

ATHEISM – A term derived from the Greek, meaning literally the "disbelief in a God." As originally used in the writings of the people that coined it, it carried the implication of non-recognition of the God or the gods acknowledged as...