Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/208

Rh 190 E Ewas written in Greek originally as P, following the Phoenician form ; sometimes, however, a triangle takes the place of the semicircle ; not unfrequently also a short stroke appears where we have the lower limb on the right hand ; the reason of this addition is not plain : it can hardly have been a diacritical mark to distinguish R from P (as G from C at Rome) because the latter symbol in Greece always kept its two vertical lines (f), the curved line (P) appearing first in the Roman alphabet. The sounds denoted by the same symbol r differ con- siderably. First, there is the true consonantal 1 our English r in reed, &c. produced by raising the tip only of the tongue towards the front palate ; the voice escapes by this aperture, the side passages between the tongue and the palate being closed ; the mechanism, therefore, is just the opposite to that which produces I (see letter L). Secondly, there is the vowel r ; this is due to the space between the tip of the tongue and the palate being suffi- ciently great to allow the voice to escape without any friction ; the difference between this and consonantal r is parallel to that between u and w, or between i and y. This vowel -sound, though not heard regularly in any modern language, is not unfrequent in several in certain combina- tions ; for example, it is quite possible to articulate "father" as "fath-r," where the r alone forms a syllable and is there- fore vocalic. This vowel-sound was a regular sound in Sans- krit, and was probably also heard in the parent language ; but in the derived languages (except Sanskrit) it became consonantal r with an independent vowel preceding or following; thus a presumed original "krd" ( = heart), where r denotes the vocalic r, gave in Sanskrit " hrd," in Greek KpaS-irj, in Latin " cor(d)." Thirdly, r may denote a trill, that is to say, a sound produced by the vibration of the tongue when laid loosely against the palate and set in motion by a strong current of breath or voice. When the point of the tongue is laid loosely in this way against the palate just behind the gums and made to trill as voice passes over it, we hear the Scotch and the French r, each of which is a trill, not a consonantal r. The same sound, but unvoiced, is heard in the French " theatre," &c., and is also the Welsh rh. A similar trill at the back part of the palate gives the Northumbrian " burr." RAAB (Hungarian Gyor), the capital of a Hungarian province of the same name, lies at the influx of the Raab into a branch of the Danube, 70 miles to the south-east of Vienna. It is a well-built town, with a pleasant pro- menade laid out on the site of the old fortifications, and is the seat of a Roman Catholic bishop. The cathe- dral dates from the 12th century, but has recently been modernized ; the bishop's palace is an imposing castellated edifice, with dungeons constructed by the Turks. The town possesses several other churches, two of which belong to the Protestants and one to the Greek Church, besides convents, schools, and an academy of jurisprudence. The theatre, on an island formed by the Danube and the Raab, is also a handsome building. The inhabitants, who num- bered 20,980 in 1880, manufacture cloth and tobacco and carry on a considerable trade in grain and horses. Raab occupies the site of the Roman Arabona, and by the 10th cen- tury had become a place of some importance. In 1594 it fell into the hands of the Turks, who, however, retained possession of it for four years only. In 1809 the forces of the insurgent Hunga- rian noblesse were easily defeated here by Napoleon's veterans ; and the attempts made to maintain the town against the Austrians in 1848-49 were also fruitless. About 10 miles to the south-east of Raab is St Martinsberg, the oldest and wealthiest abbey in Hungary. RAB, RABBI, RABBAN, RABBONI, RABBENU, Jewish titles of honour. Rob (31), "lord," "master," " teacher," is the title prefixed to the name of such a Baby- lonian teacher of the Law or expounder of the Mishnah as, though authorized to "judge " and to decide other religious questions, has not been ordained, or fully ordained, in Palestine. 1 Rabbi ('3~i, paftftei, Matt, xxiii. 7, c.), " my teacher," is the title of a teacher fully ordained in Pales- tine. Rabbdn, "our teacher" or "our lord," but also " their," i.e., all Israel's, teacher (Jin, later form of Din), was the title of the prince (president of the synedrium) from the time of Gamliel I. (the Gamaliel of St Paul) and onward. If a prince-president sprang from any other house than HillePs, who was a descendant of David through the female line (as, for example, R. El'azar b. 'Azaryah), he was not called by this highest title of honour. The only ex- ception to this rule was Rabban Yohanan b. Zakkai, to whom Jewish traditional lore owes so much, nay, its very existence. For he not merely had a distinguished circle of pupils of his own (Aboth, ii. 8, 9), but he saved the lives of the members of the synedrium and secured its free activity. Vespasian, who knew him to have been friendly to the cause of Rome, granted him " Yamnia and its sages" at his request (T. B., Gittin, 56b). In Babylonia, again, Rabbana (Rab- bono) was the title of the Resh Galutha, or " head of the captivity." He who bore it was always the reigning de- scendant of the house of David in the male line. The only person on whom this title was bestowed, though he was not Resh Galutha, was Rab Ashe (T. B., Kethuboth, 22a), the principal editor of the Babylonian Talmud, who is reported to have united in his person riches, learning, and virtues such as no man had possessed since the time of " Rabbi," the principal editor of the Mishnah (T. B., Gittin, 59a). RAB, when the title is not followed by an individual name, denotes par excellence Abba Arekha (Arikha), so called either from the place Arekha in Babylonia, or be- cause of his high stature, or his eminence as a man and scholar. Abba Arekha was the most successful teacher of the Law and interpreter of the Mishnah in Babylonia, having brought the latter with him from Palestine, where he had received it orally and directly from Rabbi Yehudah Hannasi; he taught it to more than 1200 pupils, whom he is related to have housed, fed, and clothed (T. B., Kethuboth, 106a). He introduced many religious and moral reforms, notably in connexion with marriage, which are law among the Jews of all countries to this day. His Hebrew prose approaches the sublimity of the Old Testa- ment poetry, as may be seen from the tripartite " addi- tional service " recited by all Rabbinic Jews on the two days of the " New Year." He is also in Babylonia the sole representative of the sublime Palestinian Agadoth, which so closely resemble the words of the Founder of Christianity. In patience with others, and especially with his shrewish wife, he surpassed Job himself. He died as the first head of the academy of Sura (somewhat later identified with Matha Mehasya) in 247 A.D., more than eighty years old. RABBI, when the title is not followed by a proper name, denotes par excellence Rabbi Yehudah Hannasi, the prin- cipal editor of the Mishnah (see vol. xvi. p. 504). 1 An old pronunciation of this title is Rib, as in Biribbi ("O^l T3), of which the only true explanation is " son of the greatest doctor of the age," applied to B. Yose b. Halaphta (T. B., Pesahim, lOOa), R. Shime'on, son of the editor of the Mishnah (Babd Bathra, 16b), and others. Hence the Talmudic explanation of Exod. xxiii. 2, "thou shalt not gainsay a scholar greater than thyself" (T. B,, Synhedrin, 18b).