| VOCALIZATION – Semitic Skeleton Writing. All Semitic script, excepting Ethiopic and Assyro-Babylonian, the latter of which in its origin is held by many to be not Semitic, is purely consonantal, the reader being left to supply the vowels. The... |
| VOGEL, SIR JULIUS – Agent-general in London for New Zealand; born in London Feb. 25, 1835; died there March 13, 1899. He was the son of Albert Lee Vogel, and was educated at University College School. Left an orphan, he emigrated to Australia in... |
| VOGELSTEIN, HERMANN – German rabbi and historian; born at Pilsen, Bohemia, Jan. 8, 1870. His father was Heinemann Vogelstein, rabbi of Stettin. Vogelstein received his education at his native town, the gymnasium at Stettin, and the universities and... |
| VOICE OF HEAVEN – See Bat Ḳol. |
| VOICE OF ISRAEL – See Periodicals. |
| VOICE OF JACOB – See Periodicals. |
| VOID AND VOIDABLE CONTRACTS – See Contract. |
| VOLOZHIN – Russian town in the government of Wilna; at the present time (1905) it belongs to Prince Tishkewitz. As in most other Lithuanian towns, the Jews constitute the greater part of the population. Jews settled there about the middle... |
| VOLTAIRE – French poet, historian, and essayist; born at Paris Nov. 21, 1694; died there May 30, 1778. His name was originally François Marie Arouet; but about 1718 he assumed the name of Voltaire. He is known to the world as one of the... |
| VOLTERRA, AARON ḤAI – Liturgical poet of the first half of the eighteenth century; rabbi of the Italian communities in Massa e Carrara. He was the author of a prayer entitled "Baḳḳashah," or "Elef Shin." The latter name, however, is misleading; for... |
| VOLTERRA, MESHULLAM BEN MENAHEM – Italian jeweler of the fifteenth century. He lived in Florence, where he and his father, Menahem ben Aaron Volterra (who in 1460 was worth 100,000 ducats), carried on a business in precious stones. According to Abraham... |
| VOORSANGER, JACOB – American rabbi; born at Amsterdam, Holland, Nov. 13, 1852. He was educated at the Jewish Theological Seminary of Amsterdam, and received the degree of D.D. from the Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, O. He has officiated as rabbi... |
| VORARLBERG – Extreme western district of the Austrian empire. In the Middle Ages it was called "Vor dem Arlberg," and was divided into the estates of Bregenz, Feldkirch, and Bludenz. To these was added in 1560 the imperial county of... |
| VORSPIEL – See Marriage. |
| VOSKHOD – See Russia—Periodicals. |
| VOSSIUS, ISAAC – See Manasseh ben Israel. |
| VOWS – Promises made under religious sanction. In Talmudic law distinction is made between two principal kinds of vows: (1) A voluntary promise to bring a sacrifice which he who makes the vow is not otherwise in duty bound to bring; or... |
| VULGATE – Earlier Latin Translations. Latin version of the Bible authorized by the Council of Trent in 1546 as the Bible of the Roman Catholic Church. It was the product of the work of Jerome, one of the most learned and scholarly of the... |
| VULTURE – The Hebrew terms rendered in one or the other of the English versions by "vulture" are: "da'ah" (Lev. xi. 14) and its variant "dayyah" (Deut. xiv. 13 and Isa. xxxiv. 15 [R. V. "kite"]), "ayyah" (Lev. xi. 14; Deut. xiv. 13; Job... |