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MAACAH – 1. Small Aramean kingdom east of the Sea of Galilee (I Chron. xix. 6). Its territory was in the region assigned to the half-tribe of Manasseh east of the Jordan. Maacah, its king, became a mercenary of the Ammonites in their war...
MA'ALI IBN HIBAT ALLAH, ABU AL- – Egyptian physician; lived at Fusṭaṭ (Cairo) at the end of the twelfth century. He was the physician of Salaḥ al-Din (Saladin) and, after the death of the latter, of his brother Al-Malik al-'Adil. Ibn Abi Uṣaibi'ah, in his...
MA'AMAD – See Mahamad.
MA'ARABI (AL-MAGHREBI), ISRAEL BEN SAMUEL HA-DAYYAN – Karaite scholar; lived at Cairo in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; teacher of the Karaite physician and writer Japhet ibn Ẓaghir of Cairo. Ma'arabi wrote, in Arabic, a work on the precepts (probably "Kitab al-Fara'iḍ"),...
MA'ARABI, NAHUM – Moroccan Hebrew poet and translator of the thirteenth century ("Ma'arabi," "Maghrabi" = "the western" or "the Moroccan"). His poems are found only in Moroccan collections. Two of them, of a liturgic character, were published by...
MA'ARIB – The evening prayer, from the first benediction in which the name is taken, the Talmudic term being "Tefillat 'Arbit"; one of the three daily prayers instituted in conformity with the practise of David ("Evening, and morning,...
MAARSSEN, JOSEPH BEN JACOB – Dutch scholar and publisher; member of a family of printers; lived at Amsterdam in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Maarssen published the following works: (1) A Judæo-German translation, by himself, from the Dutch of...
MAAS, JOSEPH – English musician and singer; born at Dartford, Kent, Jan. 30, 1847; died at London Jan. 16, 1886. Maas acted as chorister for five years at Rochester Cathedral (from 1856) and studied under J. C. Hopkins and Madame Bodda-Pyne....
MAAS, MYRTIL – French mathematician; born in France in 1792; died in Paris Feb. 27, 1865. He early showed an aptitude for mathematics, and in 1813 entered the Ecole Normale at Paris, where he studied until the political upheaval of 1815 caused...
MA'ASEH BERESHIT; MA'ASEH MERKABAH – Talmudic terms for the esoteric doctrine of the universe, or for parts of it (comp. Cabala). Ma'aseh Bereshit, following Gen. i., comprises the cosmogony of the Talmudic times; Ma'aseh Merkabah, based on the description of the...
MA'ASEH BOOKS – Books written in Judæo-German in Hebrew script, and containing stories, legends, and tales ("ma'asim") on various subjects, most of them relating to Jews and Judaism. They originated about the beginning of the fifteenth century,...
MA'ASER – See Tithe.
MA'ASEROT – Seventh masseket of the Mishnah, Tosefta, and Palestinian Gemara, in the Talmudic order of Zera'im. It deals with the tithes of agricultural produce due to the Levites (Num. xviii. 21). In contradistinction to the tithe called...
MA'ASIYYOT – See Anecdotes.
MACCABÆAN, THE – Monthly magazine of Jewish life and literature published in New York; established Oct., 1901, as the outcome of a resolution unanimously passed at a convention of the societies affiliated with the Federation of American...
MACCABÆANS, THE – Association of English Jewish professional men and others; founded in 1892; its aim is social intercourse and cooperation among its members with a view to the promotion of the higher interests of the Jewish race. At first...
MACCABEES, THE – Name given to the Hasmonean family. Originally the designation "Maccabeus" (Jerome, "Machabæus") was applied solely to Judas, the third son of Mattathias the Hasmonean (I Macc. ii. 4, iii. 1, et passim), Mattathias' other sons...
MACCABEES, BOOKS OF – I. There are four books which pass under this name—I, II, III, and IV Maccabees. The first of these is the only one of the four which can be regarded as a reliable historical source.I Maccabees: The First Book of the Maccabees...
MACEDONIA – Country of southeastern Europe; now a part of the Turkish empire. It is the native country of Alexander the Great, who is, therefore, called "Alexander the Macedonian" in rabbinical writings. In Dan. xi. 30 the Macedonians are...
MACHADO – Name of a family of Maranos which appears to have emigrated to America from Lisbon. The name is met with in Mexico and the West Indies at a very early date. As early as 1600, during the course of the trial of Jorge de Almeida by...
MACHÆRUS – Mountain fortress in Peræa, on the boundary between Palestine and Arabia. Alexander Jannæus first built a fortification there (Josephus, "B. J." vii. 6, § 2). His wife Salome Alexandra turned over to the Sadducean party all the...
MACHIM, MASAHOD COHEN – Moorish envoy to England, in 1813, from Mulai Sulaiman, Emperor of Morocco (1794-1822), in whose reign Christian slavery was abolished in Morocco. His son Meïr Cohen Machim visited England in the same capacity in...
MACHIR – 1. The first-born son of Manasseh (Josh. xvii. 1; I Chron. vii. 14); founder of the most important or dominant branch of the tribe of Manasseh. His importance is shown by the collocation of Ephraim and Machir (instead of...
MACHIR – A Babylonian scholar who settled in Narbonne, France, at the end of the eighth century and whose descendants were for many generations the leaders of that important community. According to a tradition preserved by Abraham ibn...
MACHIR BEN ABBA MARI – Author of a work entitled "Yalḥuṭ ha-Makiri," but about whom not even the country or the period in which he lived is known. Steinschneider ("Jewish Literature," p. 143) supposes that Machir lived in Provence; but the question of...

MAACAH – 1. Small Aramean kingdom east of the Sea of Galilee (I Chron. xix. 6). Its territory was in the region assigned to the half-tribe of Manasseh east of the Jordan. Maacah, its king, became a mercenary of the Ammonites in their war...

MA'ALI IBN HIBAT ALLAH, ABU AL- – Egyptian physician; lived at Fusṭaṭ (Cairo) at the end of the twelfth century. He was the physician of Salaḥ al-Din (Saladin) and, after the death of the latter, of his brother Al-Malik al-'Adil. Ibn Abi Uṣaibi'ah, in his...

MA'AMAD – See Mahamad.

MA'ARABI (AL-MAGHREBI), ISRAEL BEN SAMUEL HA-DAYYAN – Karaite scholar; lived at Cairo in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; teacher of the Karaite physician and writer Japhet ibn Ẓaghir of Cairo. Ma'arabi wrote, in Arabic, a work on the precepts (probably "Kitab al-Fara'iḍ"),...

MA'ARABI, NAHUM – Moroccan Hebrew poet and translator of the thirteenth century ("Ma'arabi," "Maghrabi" = "the western" or "the Moroccan"). His poems are found only in Moroccan collections. Two of them, of a liturgic character, were published by...

MA'ARIB – The evening prayer, from the first benediction in which the name is taken, the Talmudic term being "Tefillat 'Arbit"; one of the three daily prayers instituted in conformity with the practise of David ("Evening, and morning,...

MAARSSEN, JOSEPH BEN JACOB – Dutch scholar and publisher; member of a family of printers; lived at Amsterdam in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Maarssen published the following works: (1) A Judæo-German translation, by himself, from the Dutch of...

MAAS, JOSEPH – English musician and singer; born at Dartford, Kent, Jan. 30, 1847; died at London Jan. 16, 1886. Maas acted as chorister for five years at Rochester Cathedral (from 1856) and studied under J. C. Hopkins and Madame Bodda-Pyne....

MAAS, MYRTIL – French mathematician; born in France in 1792; died in Paris Feb. 27, 1865. He early showed an aptitude for mathematics, and in 1813 entered the Ecole Normale at Paris, where he studied until the political upheaval of 1815 caused...

MA'ASEH BERESHIT; MA'ASEH MERKABAH – Talmudic terms for the esoteric doctrine of the universe, or for parts of it (comp. Cabala). Ma'aseh Bereshit, following Gen. i., comprises the cosmogony of the Talmudic times; Ma'aseh Merkabah, based on the description of the...

MA'ASEH BOOKS – Books written in Judæo-German in Hebrew script, and containing stories, legends, and tales ("ma'asim") on various subjects, most of them relating to Jews and Judaism. They originated about the beginning of the fifteenth century,...

MA'ASER – See Tithe.

MA'ASEROT – Seventh masseket of the Mishnah, Tosefta, and Palestinian Gemara, in the Talmudic order of Zera'im. It deals with the tithes of agricultural produce due to the Levites (Num. xviii. 21). In contradistinction to the tithe called...

MA'ASIYYOT – See Anecdotes.

MACCABÆAN, THE – Monthly magazine of Jewish life and literature published in New York; established Oct., 1901, as the outcome of a resolution unanimously passed at a convention of the societies affiliated with the Federation of American...

MACCABÆANS, THE – Association of English Jewish professional men and others; founded in 1892; its aim is social intercourse and cooperation among its members with a view to the promotion of the higher interests of the Jewish race. At first...

MACCABEES, THE – Name given to the Hasmonean family. Originally the designation "Maccabeus" (Jerome, "Machabæus") was applied solely to Judas, the third son of Mattathias the Hasmonean (I Macc. ii. 4, iii. 1, et passim), Mattathias' other sons...

MACCABEES, BOOKS OF – I. There are four books which pass under this name—I, II, III, and IV Maccabees. The first of these is the only one of the four which can be regarded as a reliable historical source.I Maccabees: The First Book of the Maccabees...

MACEDONIA – Country of southeastern Europe; now a part of the Turkish empire. It is the native country of Alexander the Great, who is, therefore, called "Alexander the Macedonian" in rabbinical writings. In Dan. xi. 30 the Macedonians are...

MACHADO – Name of a family of Maranos which appears to have emigrated to America from Lisbon. The name is met with in Mexico and the West Indies at a very early date. As early as 1600, during the course of the trial of Jorge de Almeida by...

MACHÆRUS – Mountain fortress in Peræa, on the boundary between Palestine and Arabia. Alexander Jannæus first built a fortification there (Josephus, "B. J." vii. 6, § 2). His wife Salome Alexandra turned over to the Sadducean party all the...

MACHIM, MASAHOD COHEN – Moorish envoy to England, in 1813, from Mulai Sulaiman, Emperor of Morocco (1794-1822), in whose reign Christian slavery was abolished in Morocco. His son Meïr Cohen Machim visited England in the same capacity in...

MACHIR – 1. The first-born son of Manasseh (Josh. xvii. 1; I Chron. vii. 14); founder of the most important or dominant branch of the tribe of Manasseh. His importance is shown by the collocation of Ephraim and Machir (instead of...

MACHIR – A Babylonian scholar who settled in Narbonne, France, at the end of the eighth century and whose descendants were for many generations the leaders of that important community. According to a tradition preserved by Abraham ibn...

MACHIR BEN ABBA MARI – Author of a work entitled "Yalḥuṭ ha-Makiri," but about whom not even the country or the period in which he lived is known. Steinschneider ("Jewish Literature," p. 143) supposes that Machir lived in Provence; but the question of...