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SHEKANẒIB – Small town near Nehardea, in Persia, perhaps identical with Al-Zib on the Tigris, and possibly with ('Er. 64a, MS. reading). According to M. Ḳ. 28b, its women were noted for the beautiful songs of mourning which they sang at...
SHEKEL – Name of (1) a weight and of (2) a silver coin in use among the Hebrews.1. Weight: It has long been admitted that the Israelites derived their system of weights and coins from the Babylonians, and both peoples divided the talent...
SHEKINAH – In the Targumim. The majestic presence or manifestation of God which has descended to "dwell" among men. Like Memra (= "word"; "logos") and "Yeḳara" (i.e., "Kabod" = "glory"), the term was used by the Rabbis in place of "God"...
SHELA – Babylonian teacher of the latter part of the tannaitic and the beginning of the amoraic period; head of the school ("sidra") at Nehardea (Yoma 20a; Letter of Sherira Gaon, in Neubauer, "M. J. C." i. 28). When Abba Arika (Rab)...
SHELAH – Youngest son of Judah by the daughter of the Canaanite Shuah; born in Chezib in the shephelah of Judah. His extreme youth at the time of the death of his brother Onan was the ostensible excuse alleged by his father for the...
SHELIAḤ ẒIBBUR – Congregational messenger or deputy or agent. During the time of the Second Temple it was the priest who represented the congregation in offering the sacrifice, and who, before the close of the service, pronounced the priestly...
SHEM – Biblical Data: The eldest of Noah's sons, according to the position and sequence of the names wherever all three are mentioned together; e.g., "and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth" (Gen. v. 32). In the table of nations in Gen....
SHEM HA-MEFORASH – Meaning of Term. Ancient tannaitic name of the Tetragrammaton. The exact meaning of the term is somewhat obscure; but since the Tetragrammaton is called also "Shem ha-Meyuḥad" ( ), it may be assumed that "meyuḥad" is used...
SHEM-ṬOB BEN ABRAHAM IBN GAON – Settles in Safed. Spanish Talmudist and cabalist; born at Soria, Spain, 1283; died, probably in Palestine, after 1330. From his genealogy given in the preface to his "Keter Shem-Ṭob)," Azulai ("Shem ha-Gedolim," ii., s.v. "Keter...
SHEM-ṬOB DE CARRION – See Santob (Shem-Ṭob) de Carrion.
SHEM-ṬOB BEN ISAAC OF TORTOSA – Abandons Commerce for Rabbinics. Spanish scholar and physician of the thirteenth century; born at Tortosa 1196. He engaged in commerce, and his business necessitated his traveling much both by sea and by land. Being once at...
– See Ibn Shem-Ṭob, Shem-Ṭob (ben Joseph?).
SHEM-ṬOB IBN PALQUERA – See Falaquera (Palquera), Shem-Ṭob ben Joseph.
SHEMA' – Initial word of the verse, or chapter, recited as the confession of the Jewish faith. Originally, the "Shema'" consisted only of the one verse, Deut. vi. 4 (see Suk. 42a; Ber. 13b); the regular "Shema'" in the liturgy, however,...
SHEMA' ḲOLI – Opening hymn of the services on the eve of Atonement in the Sephardic ritual, preceding Kol Nidre. It consists of twenty-nine distichs based on the penitential formula of the Mishnah (Ta'an. ii. 1), "May He who answered the...
SHEMAIAH – Prophet in the reign of Rehoboam. He was commissioned to dissuade the king from waging war against the Northern Kingdom after its revolt, because it was the will of God that Israel should form an independent state (I Kings xii....
SHEMAIAH (SAMAIAS, SAMEAS) – Leader of the Pharisees in the first century B.C.; president of the Sanhedrin before and during the reign of Herod. He and his colleague Abtalion are termed in Pes. 66a the "gedole ha-dor" (the great men of the age), and ib. 70a...
SHEMAIAH B. SIMEON ẒEBI – Scholar of the seventeenth century, of whose life no other details are known than that he was the author of "Maẓref la-Ḥokmah" (Amsterdam, 1765), a list of the 613 commandments, each being described in eight words beginning with...
SHEMAIAH OF SOISSONS – Scholar of the twelfth century; a pupil of Rashi. He was the author of the following works: (1) "Sodot" or "Midrash," notes on the construction of the Tabernacle as described in Ex. xxv.-xxvi. It was edited on the basis of the...
SHEMAIAH OF TROYES – Tosafist of the early part of the twelfth century; a pupil of Rashi; probably the father-in-law of Samuel b. Meïr. He appears as a tosafist in Ber. 13a, 25b; Pes. 114a; Ket. 61a; Ḳid. 26b, and is mentioned as a casuist by Judah...
SHEMANA (SEMANA) – Scholarly and prominent family of Tunis.Samuel b. Joseph Shemana: Rabbi of Tunis, whose family subsequently settled at Susa. He wrote "Ḳeren Ẓebi" (Leghorn, 1835), a commentary on the "Sefer Ḳarnayim" of Aaron of Cardena.Solomon...
SHEMARIAH BEN ELHANAN – Head of the yeshibah of Cairo, Egypt, about the end of the tenth century. Abraham b. David ("Sefer ha-Ḳabbalah," in Neubauer, "M. J. C." i. 68) relates that Ibn Rumaḥis (or Ibn Demahin), an Arab admiral, had captured four...
SHEMARIAH B. MORDECAI – German tosafist of the first half of the twelfth century; pupil of the tosafist Isaac b. Asher. He was considered an especially eminent authority on religious rites ("ba'al ma'asim"), and seems to have written "posḳim"...
SHEMARIAH OF NEGROPONT – See Iḳriṭi, Shemariah.
SHEMINI 'AẒERET – Eighth day of Sukkot, "'aẓeret" being the name given to it in Lev. xxiii. 36; Num. xxix. 35; Neh. viii. 18; II Chron. vii. 9. The eighth day of Sukkot is not mentioned in Deut. xvi., and is found only in those parts of the Bible...

SHEKANẒIB – Small town near Nehardea, in Persia, perhaps identical with Al-Zib on the Tigris, and possibly with ('Er. 64a, MS. reading). According to M. Ḳ. 28b, its women were noted for the beautiful songs of mourning which they sang at...

SHEKEL – Name of (1) a weight and of (2) a silver coin in use among the Hebrews.1. Weight: It has long been admitted that the Israelites derived their system of weights and coins from the Babylonians, and both peoples divided the talent...

SHEKINAH – In the Targumim. The majestic presence or manifestation of God which has descended to "dwell" among men. Like Memra (= "word"; "logos") and "Yeḳara" (i.e., "Kabod" = "glory"), the term was used by the Rabbis in place of "God"...

SHELA – Babylonian teacher of the latter part of the tannaitic and the beginning of the amoraic period; head of the school ("sidra") at Nehardea (Yoma 20a; Letter of Sherira Gaon, in Neubauer, "M. J. C." i. 28). When Abba Arika (Rab)...

SHELAH – Youngest son of Judah by the daughter of the Canaanite Shuah; born in Chezib in the shephelah of Judah. His extreme youth at the time of the death of his brother Onan was the ostensible excuse alleged by his father for the...

SHELIAḤ ẒIBBUR – Congregational messenger or deputy or agent. During the time of the Second Temple it was the priest who represented the congregation in offering the sacrifice, and who, before the close of the service, pronounced the priestly...

SHEM – Biblical Data: The eldest of Noah's sons, according to the position and sequence of the names wherever all three are mentioned together; e.g., "and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth" (Gen. v. 32). In the table of nations in Gen....

SHEM HA-MEFORASH – Meaning of Term. Ancient tannaitic name of the Tetragrammaton. The exact meaning of the term is somewhat obscure; but since the Tetragrammaton is called also "Shem ha-Meyuḥad" ( ), it may be assumed that "meyuḥad" is used...

SHEM-ṬOB BEN ABRAHAM IBN GAON – Settles in Safed. Spanish Talmudist and cabalist; born at Soria, Spain, 1283; died, probably in Palestine, after 1330. From his genealogy given in the preface to his "Keter Shem-Ṭob)," Azulai ("Shem ha-Gedolim," ii., s.v. "Keter...

SHEM-ṬOB DE CARRION – See Santob (Shem-Ṭob) de Carrion.

SHEM-ṬOB BEN ISAAC OF TORTOSA – Abandons Commerce for Rabbinics. Spanish scholar and physician of the thirteenth century; born at Tortosa 1196. He engaged in commerce, and his business necessitated his traveling much both by sea and by land. Being once at...

– See Ibn Shem-Ṭob, Shem-Ṭob (ben Joseph?).

SHEM-ṬOB IBN PALQUERA – See Falaquera (Palquera), Shem-Ṭob ben Joseph.

SHEMA' – Initial word of the verse, or chapter, recited as the confession of the Jewish faith. Originally, the "Shema'" consisted only of the one verse, Deut. vi. 4 (see Suk. 42a; Ber. 13b); the regular "Shema'" in the liturgy, however,...

SHEMA' ḲOLI – Opening hymn of the services on the eve of Atonement in the Sephardic ritual, preceding Kol Nidre. It consists of twenty-nine distichs based on the penitential formula of the Mishnah (Ta'an. ii. 1), "May He who answered the...

SHEMAIAH – Prophet in the reign of Rehoboam. He was commissioned to dissuade the king from waging war against the Northern Kingdom after its revolt, because it was the will of God that Israel should form an independent state (I Kings xii....

SHEMAIAH (SAMAIAS, SAMEAS) – Leader of the Pharisees in the first century B.C.; president of the Sanhedrin before and during the reign of Herod. He and his colleague Abtalion are termed in Pes. 66a the "gedole ha-dor" (the great men of the age), and ib. 70a...

SHEMAIAH B. SIMEON ẒEBI – Scholar of the seventeenth century, of whose life no other details are known than that he was the author of "Maẓref la-Ḥokmah" (Amsterdam, 1765), a list of the 613 commandments, each being described in eight words beginning with...

SHEMAIAH OF SOISSONS – Scholar of the twelfth century; a pupil of Rashi. He was the author of the following works: (1) "Sodot" or "Midrash," notes on the construction of the Tabernacle as described in Ex. xxv.-xxvi. It was edited on the basis of the...

SHEMAIAH OF TROYES – Tosafist of the early part of the twelfth century; a pupil of Rashi; probably the father-in-law of Samuel b. Meïr. He appears as a tosafist in Ber. 13a, 25b; Pes. 114a; Ket. 61a; Ḳid. 26b, and is mentioned as a casuist by Judah...

SHEMANA (SEMANA) – Scholarly and prominent family of Tunis.Samuel b. Joseph Shemana: Rabbi of Tunis, whose family subsequently settled at Susa. He wrote "Ḳeren Ẓebi" (Leghorn, 1835), a commentary on the "Sefer Ḳarnayim" of Aaron of Cardena.Solomon...

SHEMARIAH BEN ELHANAN – Head of the yeshibah of Cairo, Egypt, about the end of the tenth century. Abraham b. David ("Sefer ha-Ḳabbalah," in Neubauer, "M. J. C." i. 68) relates that Ibn Rumaḥis (or Ibn Demahin), an Arab admiral, had captured four...

SHEMARIAH B. MORDECAI – German tosafist of the first half of the twelfth century; pupil of the tosafist Isaac b. Asher. He was considered an especially eminent authority on religious rites ("ba'al ma'asim"), and seems to have written "posḳim"...

SHEMARIAH OF NEGROPONT – See Iḳriṭi, Shemariah.

SHEMINI 'AẒERET – Eighth day of Sukkot, "'aẓeret" being the name given to it in Lev. xxiii. 36; Num. xxix. 35; Neh. viii. 18; II Chron. vii. 9. The eighth day of Sukkot is not mentioned in Deut. xvi., and is found only in those parts of the Bible...