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SELAH – Term of uncertain etymology and grammatical form and of doubtful meaning. It occurs seventy-one times in thirty-nine of the Psalms, and three times in Hab. iii. It is placed at the end of Ps. iii., ix., xxiv., xlvi., and in most...
SELDEN, JOHN – English jurist and Orientalist; born Dec. 16, 1584, at Salvington, Sussex; died at Whitefriars, London, Nov. 30, 1654. He was educated at Oxford, and was admitted to the Inner Temple June 14, 1612. He had the use of the valuable...
SELEUCIA – 1. Greek colony founded about the end of the third century B.C. on Lake Merom. According to the inference of Grätz, based on the scholium to Meg. Ta'an., the remnant of the Pharisees spared by Alexander Jannæus found a refuge...
SELEUCIDÆ – Powerful Syrian dynasty, which exercised an influence on the history of the Jews for two centuries (312-112 B.C.).Seleucus I., Nicator ("the victorious"): Founder of the line; born about 357; died about 280. He was one of the...
SELF-DEFENSE – See Homicide.
SELIGMAN – American Jewish family having its origin in Baiersdorf, Bavaria. The eight sons of David Seligman have formed merchantile establishments spread throughout the chief commercial centers of the United States. The eldest, Joseph,...
SELIGMANN, FRANZ ROMEO – Austrian physician and Persian scholar; born at Nikolsburg June 30, 1808; died at Vienna Sept. 15, 1892. Educated at the gymnasium and University of Vienna (M.D. 1830), he became privat-docent at his alma mater in 1833. From...
SELIGMANN, LEOPOLD, RITTER VON – Austrian army surgeon; born at Nikolsburg Jan. 18, 1815; brother of Franz Romeo Seligmann. He received his education at the gymnasium of his native town and at the University of Vienna, taking the medico-surgical course at the...
SELIGSOHN, MAX – Russian-American Orientalist; born in Russia April 13, 1865. Having received his rabbinical training at Slutsk, government of Minsk, he went in 1888 to New York, where he studied modern languages till 1894, in which year he went...
SELIGSOHN, SAMUEL – Hebrew poet; born at Samoczin, Posen, 1815; died there Oct. 3, 1866. He published "Ha-Abib" (Berlin, 1845), an epos. Another epos, on the destruction of Jerusalem, and various essays by him remained in manuscript.Bibliography:...
SELIḤAH – Originally for the Day of Atonement. Penitential prayers; perhaps the oldest portion of the synagogal compositions known under the term of Piyyuṭim. The word "seliḥah" (from "salaḥ" = "he forgave") is particularly used in the...
SEMAḤOT – SEPHARDIC VERSICLE MELODY Euphemistic name of the treatise known as "Ebel Rabbati," one of the so-called small or later treatises which in the editions of the Babylonian Talmud are placed after the fourth order, Neziḳin; it...
SEMALION – Name occurring in an obscure passage relating to the death of Moses (Sifre, Deut. 357; Soṭab 13b), which modern scholars consider to be identical with the Greek Σημαλέον (="giving a sign") and about which the ancient...
SEMIATITSCH, GEDALIAH – Lithuanian Talmudist of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He was one of the Ḥasidic party which in 1700 made a pilgrimage to Palestine under the leadership of Judah Ḥasid. In his work "Sha'alu Shelom Yerushalayim"...
SEMIKAH – In Sacrifices. A ceremony obligatory on one who offered an animal sacrifice. The regulations governing its observance were as follows: The owner of the sacrificial victim (Sifra, Wayiḳra, v. [ed. Weiss, 6d-7a]) was required to...
SEMINAIRE ISRAELITE DE FRANCE – French rabbinical school. On Jan. 23, 1704, Abraham Schwab and Agathe, his wife, founded a yeshibah at Metz; and on Nov. 12, 1705, there was executed before a notary public a deed of trust, a copy of which is still preserved in...
SEMITES – Term used in a general way to designate those peoples who are said in Gen. x. 21-30 to be the descendants of the patriarch Shem.—Biblical Data: These descendants are enumerated in the passage cited as Elam, Asshur (Assyria),...
SEMITIC LANGUAGES – Languages spoken by the Semitic peoples (comp. Semites). These peoples are the North-Arabians, the South-Arabians, the Abyssinians (ancient and modern), the ancient Babylonians and Assyrians, the various Aramean tribes, the...
SEMITIC MUSEUM, HARVARD UNIVERSITY – Founded by Jacob H. Schiff of New York in 1889, at Cambridge, Mass. Its objects are to gather, preserve, and exhibit all known kinds of material illustrating the life, history, and thought of the Semitic peoples, to increase the...
SEMON, CHARLES – Philanthropist; born in Danzig 1814; died in Switzerland July 18, 1877. He emigrated to England and settled in the manufacturing town of Bradford, Yorkshire, becoming one of its most prominent citizens. He was elected mayor in...
SEMON, SIR FELIX – English specialist in diseases of the throat; born at Danzig Dec. 8, 1849; nephew of Julius Semon. He studied medicine at the universities of Heidelberg, Berlin, Vienna, and Paris and at St. Thomas's Hospital, London, receiving...
SEN BONET BONJORN – See Bonet, Jacob Ben David.
SENATOR, HERMAN – German clinicist and medical author; born at Gnesen, province of Posen, Prussia, Dec. 6, 1834; M.D. Berlin, 1857. During his medical course he was for a year and a half amanuensis to the physiologist Müller. He established...
SENECA, LUCIUS ANNÆUS – Stoic philosopher; born about 6 B.C.; died 65 C.E.; teacher of Nero. Like other Latin authors of the period, Seneca mentions the Jews, although his opinions are known only from fragments. He devotes a long passage to an...
SENEH – See Botany.

SELAH – Term of uncertain etymology and grammatical form and of doubtful meaning. It occurs seventy-one times in thirty-nine of the Psalms, and three times in Hab. iii. It is placed at the end of Ps. iii., ix., xxiv., xlvi., and in most...

SELDEN, JOHN – English jurist and Orientalist; born Dec. 16, 1584, at Salvington, Sussex; died at Whitefriars, London, Nov. 30, 1654. He was educated at Oxford, and was admitted to the Inner Temple June 14, 1612. He had the use of the valuable...

SELEUCIA – 1. Greek colony founded about the end of the third century B.C. on Lake Merom. According to the inference of Grätz, based on the scholium to Meg. Ta'an., the remnant of the Pharisees spared by Alexander Jannæus found a refuge...

SELEUCIDÆ – Powerful Syrian dynasty, which exercised an influence on the history of the Jews for two centuries (312-112 B.C.).Seleucus I., Nicator ("the victorious"): Founder of the line; born about 357; died about 280. He was one of the...

SELF-DEFENSE – See Homicide.

SELIGMAN – American Jewish family having its origin in Baiersdorf, Bavaria. The eight sons of David Seligman have formed merchantile establishments spread throughout the chief commercial centers of the United States. The eldest, Joseph,...

SELIGMANN, FRANZ ROMEO – Austrian physician and Persian scholar; born at Nikolsburg June 30, 1808; died at Vienna Sept. 15, 1892. Educated at the gymnasium and University of Vienna (M.D. 1830), he became privat-docent at his alma mater in 1833. From...

SELIGMANN, LEOPOLD, RITTER VON – Austrian army surgeon; born at Nikolsburg Jan. 18, 1815; brother of Franz Romeo Seligmann. He received his education at the gymnasium of his native town and at the University of Vienna, taking the medico-surgical course at the...

SELIGSOHN, MAX – Russian-American Orientalist; born in Russia April 13, 1865. Having received his rabbinical training at Slutsk, government of Minsk, he went in 1888 to New York, where he studied modern languages till 1894, in which year he went...

SELIGSOHN, SAMUEL – Hebrew poet; born at Samoczin, Posen, 1815; died there Oct. 3, 1866. He published "Ha-Abib" (Berlin, 1845), an epos. Another epos, on the destruction of Jerusalem, and various essays by him remained in manuscript.Bibliography:...

SELIḤAH – Originally for the Day of Atonement. Penitential prayers; perhaps the oldest portion of the synagogal compositions known under the term of Piyyuṭim. The word "seliḥah" (from "salaḥ" = "he forgave") is particularly used in the...

SEMAḤOT – SEPHARDIC VERSICLE MELODY Euphemistic name of the treatise known as "Ebel Rabbati," one of the so-called small or later treatises which in the editions of the Babylonian Talmud are placed after the fourth order, Neziḳin; it...

SEMALION – Name occurring in an obscure passage relating to the death of Moses (Sifre, Deut. 357; Soṭab 13b), which modern scholars consider to be identical with the Greek Σημαλέον (="giving a sign") and about which the ancient...

SEMIATITSCH, GEDALIAH – Lithuanian Talmudist of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He was one of the Ḥasidic party which in 1700 made a pilgrimage to Palestine under the leadership of Judah Ḥasid. In his work "Sha'alu Shelom Yerushalayim"...

SEMIKAH – In Sacrifices. A ceremony obligatory on one who offered an animal sacrifice. The regulations governing its observance were as follows: The owner of the sacrificial victim (Sifra, Wayiḳra, v. [ed. Weiss, 6d-7a]) was required to...

SEMINAIRE ISRAELITE DE FRANCE – French rabbinical school. On Jan. 23, 1704, Abraham Schwab and Agathe, his wife, founded a yeshibah at Metz; and on Nov. 12, 1705, there was executed before a notary public a deed of trust, a copy of which is still preserved in...

SEMITES – Term used in a general way to designate those peoples who are said in Gen. x. 21-30 to be the descendants of the patriarch Shem.—Biblical Data: These descendants are enumerated in the passage cited as Elam, Asshur (Assyria),...

SEMITIC LANGUAGES – Languages spoken by the Semitic peoples (comp. Semites). These peoples are the North-Arabians, the South-Arabians, the Abyssinians (ancient and modern), the ancient Babylonians and Assyrians, the various Aramean tribes, the...

SEMITIC MUSEUM, HARVARD UNIVERSITY – Founded by Jacob H. Schiff of New York in 1889, at Cambridge, Mass. Its objects are to gather, preserve, and exhibit all known kinds of material illustrating the life, history, and thought of the Semitic peoples, to increase the...

SEMON, CHARLES – Philanthropist; born in Danzig 1814; died in Switzerland July 18, 1877. He emigrated to England and settled in the manufacturing town of Bradford, Yorkshire, becoming one of its most prominent citizens. He was elected mayor in...

SEMON, SIR FELIX – English specialist in diseases of the throat; born at Danzig Dec. 8, 1849; nephew of Julius Semon. He studied medicine at the universities of Heidelberg, Berlin, Vienna, and Paris and at St. Thomas's Hospital, London, receiving...

SEN BONET BONJORN – See Bonet, Jacob Ben David.

SENATOR, HERMAN – German clinicist and medical author; born at Gnesen, province of Posen, Prussia, Dec. 6, 1834; M.D. Berlin, 1857. During his medical course he was for a year and a half amanuensis to the physiologist Müller. He established...

SENECA, LUCIUS ANNÆUS – Stoic philosopher; born about 6 B.C.; died 65 C.E.; teacher of Nero. Like other Latin authors of the period, Seneca mentions the Jews, although his opinions are known only from fragments. He devotes a long passage to an...

SENEH – See Botany.