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144 Abulfaraj bar Hebraeus Academies in Babylonia

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

In tlicsc two works TodrosAbiiof thellnpgadiit. latin appears as an own opponent of Maimonidcs, whom Ik- otherwise jrreatly honors. BlBi.uxiKAPHY: Zunz. X. 4«1:

(iriitz.

MWmf.

Ill-

ii>iiin.S-.M7.

p g

ABULFAKAJ BAB HEBR^ffiUS. See But IlKiiii.vi s Ar.i IK K i. ABUL9ASSAN, JTJDAH BEN SAMUEL HA-LEVI (IBN ALLEVI). Scc.h D.vii ABUMAI: (laoinn Sura from Sll to HIO;

ii.v

ABYSS



144

Term

for the

DWD

(Gen.

vii. 11)

of the

Old Testament, nscd in the apocalyptic, New Testament, and cabalistic literature for the place of punishment of the wicke. who is renowned for Ills many ritual and judicial decisions. yee

(iHOMM

A. K.

ABUMAI BEN ABRAHAM SHI to S14. See til'.oNI.M.

liedita froMi

known.

Gaon



>io responsa in his

in

Puin

name are A. K.

ABUN ASTRUC. See Astruc, Desmaister liKN. ABUN BEN SAUL An elegist who was prob:

ably a pupil cif Isaac Alfasi and. most likely, is the one whose death Moses ibn Ezra deplores in a poem. Two of his elegies are found in the JIahzor of

Avignon. BiBi.iooRAPHT: Zunz, Liternturgciich.

Knnii

Iknicil.

p.

34!);

Iv. 31, :i2, 85, S«.

Luzzatto, in

jj

ABUN BEN SHARADA: A

jj

Spanish poet;

flourished at the beginning of the eleventh century, None of his first at Lucena, afterward at Seville. poetical works has survived; and his name is known only from quotations made by poets like Solomon ibn In Gabirol. Moses ibn Ezra, and Judali Alharizi. a poem attributed to Solomon ilm Gabirol (compare Dukes, in "Orient," xi. 267) Abun is mentioned immediately after the lexicographer Menahem ben Saruk. Moses ibn Ezra, in liis " Diwan " (compare Neubauer, "Cat. Bodl. Hebr. MSS." Ko. 1972, ii. 12), eulogizes his life in one poem and bewails his

The Acacia. 1.

t'luWKrlng branch.

9.

Seed-pod.

—

pare Luke, viii. 31 Rev. ix. 1 xi. 7 Abyss, the seat of the dragon; xx. 3, where "Satan is cast into the abyss, shut up and a seal set upon him"). According to the Prayer of Manassch, ver.se 3. the Lord has closed and scaled up the Abyss by His awful and mystic name. There was a place beneath the altar of the Temple at Jernsjjlem believed to lead down to the very Abyss of the world, the foundation-stone of the earth being placed there (Suk. 49(7. riHii; sec Targ. Yer, Kx. xxviii. 30, and Zohar, iii. (il). In the cosmography of the rabbis (Midr. Koncn) the Abyss forms part of Gehenna; it is beneath the ocean, and consists of three, or seven, departments, one above the other. In the Cabala the opening of the great Abyss in the lower world, sealed with the seal that bears tlu; Holy Name, plays a great role as the scat of the evil spirits, and with it corresponds the opening of the great Abyss in the upper world as a cosmogonic element. See Gehin;

NOM





K.

SUF.OI,.

ABYSSINIA. See F.i..sii.vs. ACACIA.— Biblical Data A

hard and durable but light wood; at lirst yellowish, but gradually turning very dark, like ebony. Of this the Ark and its altars, with their staves, and the bars of the Tabernacle were made (Ex. xxxv. 7; Dent. x. 3). The

Tiamat, the Assyrian Abyss. (From

Bull,

" Light from the Ea«l.")

death in another. The eulogy, however, seems to be concerned with the man rather than with the poet. Indeed, Judah Alharizi ("TahkcuKini." iii.) classes Abun among the poets whose works have been forgotten because they were of but little interest. Bibliography Dukes, T^nhal ^cdiimim. p. 7 Kcrcm IJemril,

V. 86 : Moses ibn Ezra. Divnn. pp. 13, seJin(-iticr-Fi--<t!<chrifl, Hebrew part, Cat. Biiill. ools. I"!!!, 3:il4, •Mo:.

U





Brody, In the Steiii-

p. 34;

Steinschneider, I.

Bn.

Acacia-tree is called in Hebrew shittdli (for uliintah), plural slnttim: HDC, D^UC, -Vrabie. Kunt; an EgypIt is the Sj/i'nn ^-Kr/i/ptirira of the tian loan-word. ancients {MiiKOsa Ailiitifn. Linn.). It is a large, spreading, thorny tree with many branches, found in Africa and Arabia. The name of this tree (shittim) is found in various locality names mentioned in the Bible: Shittim (Num. xxxv. 1); Abel-Sliittim (ibid. xxxiii. 49); Beth-Shitfcdi (.ludges. vii. 22). It appears to have been highly prizIonskv, Opusnilfi, ed. te Water, i. 260; HoscniruilliT, H(iiiut'li hr Itilit. Allrrlhumxkundc, iv. part i. ^.'S2; Roliinson. BihJ. liisearches in Fitla<tine^ 11. 249; Imauuel Low, Aramiii^chc Pflanzennamen. p. .M; p. M*7 (for the meaning of nhittah = mnt ~ Acacia, Acncia Nihitka), p. 388 (for the meaning of toranita = cypress).

BTBLinf;RAi'nv:

J.

P. P.