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190 Adelsohn Adiabene

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

the possibility tlmt he niijiht Imvc lu'cn a convert to C'liristianitv. Bat in the poem on a certain apostate Slarano of Venice, which the pulilislicr Soncinoadtls to his edition of Vidal ninvinistes " Melizat "Efer weDiuah " (The Poem of 'Efer anil Dinah), he calls Adelkind "Cornelius the Israelite," as does Elias Lcvita in one of the poems addressed by him to Levi b. Gerson. BiBLIoiiRAPHY: SlelnsohneidiT. Jlhl. TmxHtraithlf, in Erseh and tf ruber, EncjikhtjH'titit xxvlii. 44; idem. Cat. Bodl. No.

W. M. Daniel Adelkind:

Printer and publisher: son Little is known of Conicliiis li. I'.anuli Adelkind. of him except for the years ir).50-o2; and even for that short period the only data are to be gleaned from the mention of his name on the title-pages of books. In l.wO he was engaged with Giusliniani of Venice, whom he assisted in publishing the first edition of the Hebrew translation, by Moses iliii Tibbon, of Maimonides' iihilosophical work. ".Millot lia-lliggayon." In I-Vil and 1"m'J he seems to have had. in Venice, aprintiiig-olliee of his own for the following four books, which bear his name as printer, mention no other as editor or publisher Jacob Weil's " Bedikot." with a short glossary (Venice, 1551); Samuel Archivolti's ethical work. " Degel Ahabah " (Venice, 1551): "Megillat Sefer " (Venici', 1.552): and, linally, the German "PnTcepta JIulierum," or "Frauenbiichlein," in a short epilogue to which he begs his father to accept this "booklet " as a gift from his son (1st ed.. Venice, 1552).



BIBI.IOGIIAPIIT : Steinschnelder. Cat. S631 (3), 6513 (41), 7004 (1), 7708.

Bodl. Nos.

371.5,

w.

ADELSOHN, WOLF

3949,

ai.

Manasseh

Ilier.



While

still

young man

a

he obtained the position of teacher in the house of Lippe Ettinger in Brest-Litovsk. In 1833 he settled in Dubno. where he exercised great influence upon the rising generation of the Maskilim (" Progressists "), and where at the same time he was pei-secuted by the Hasidim for his rationalism. Later, for two years, he was a teacher in the house of

Leon Chaii in ileseritz, from which place he went to Odessa, where he had to struggle hard for subsistence. He died in extreme poverty from starvation most of his papers were burnt to disinfect his

lodgings.

Among

Adelsohn's pupils were the grammarian Hayyim Zebi Lemer and the Russian censor Vladimir Feodorov (Z. H. Griinberg). Because of his philosophic character and contempt of conventionality he was called the "Diogenes" among the Maskilim. He wrote a critical treatise on "Esther." against the views of Isaac Samuel Reggio. and essays on Hebrew literature, which, after his death, came into the hands of L. Chan and Joel Baer Falkovich. Bibliography: Gottlober, in Ha-Bakcr Or, 1879. iv. No. 4; Sachs, in Kat)fe Ymiiih. Berlin,

1S4.S'; Cliari,

in

an

on

article

KccU-'^Uistcji, Odessii, 1S7:3.

D. G.

ADEN

bookbindere, money-changers, and jewelers; while the bunilioatmen. also, who serve the mail-packets that stop at Aden, are mainly Jews. The ti-.ide in ostrich feathers is entirely in the hands of Jews. Their dress consists of kilt, shirt, (irlm' kiiuful, waistcoat, and gabardine; and duiing prayer they wear over the head a tallit known as ;«c«< (side-locks), every Fri<lay. Their food is veiretables and lish; but they are .said to be much addicted to date wine i)repared by themselves. There ajipcars to be some trace of animal sacrifice among them, possibly borrowed from the neighboring Arabs. When a child is born, a goat is slaughtered and placed under the bed of the mother. On the tirst day of marriage a heifer Ls slaughtered but in this latterca.se it niay be rather for purposes of

hospitality.

not known when Jews first settled in Aden, in antiiiuity was an important mart, and continued so as late as JIarco Polo (12.5-1-1324). Some of the earlier rabbis arc known as "Adeni," which It is

which

would imply a congregation of some size Aden has become important since the British occupation in 1839, at which date the Jews numbere-Jeu^:*hA!<sociatioit, An)ntal Ucintrtti, 1S75, ISTti.

Sflthnuitt JVr.v|/(^•*

J.

Russian-Hebrev scholar and ti'acher; bora in Lithuania about the beginning of the nineteenth century; die<I in Odessa, August 13.1866. Of his parentage nothing is known. Adelsohn was a disciple of Rabbi ilauasseh ben Porath. called also

190

Port in western Arabia on the shores of the Red Sea, near the sti-ait of Bab-el-Mandeb a British possession since 1839. In 1891 its population was 41,910. In 1881 there were in Aden 2, 121 Jews, including 125 Beni Israel from Bombay. More recently the .Tewish community has received an accession of 250 families from Yemen. Their occupations are those of mat- and reed-workers, masons, porters,



ADENI, SOLOMON BEN JOSHUA:

Ara-

bian author ami TaliM ui list, win lived during the first half of the .seven teen 111 century at Sanaa and Aden in southern Arabia, from which town he received the name "Adeni" or " the Adenite." He was a pupil of the Talniudisl Bezalel .Vshkena/.i and of the cabalist Hayyim Vital. In 11)24, or, according to other authorities, in 1022. he wrote a commentary on the " ;Meleket Shelomoh " (The" Work of Mishnah, entitled Solomon ). Only a few fragments of this have l)een published, but they arc quite sullicient to indicate the value of the whole work. In this commentary, Adeni exhibits considerable critical ability. He analyzes the Jlishnah in a manner that is ciuite modem, and which is accompanied by a strictly scientific penetration that enables him to enter intothe most minute i

det;iilsof themishnaic text, its punctuation and spelling. The great value of Adeni 's work was recognized by Manasseh ben Israel, who made use of its critical

conclusions in his edition of the Jlishnah of

1632.

Adeni incorporated

in. his

work

Josejili

Ash-

kenazi's valuable amendments to the Mishnah. In addition to his commentary he wrote " Dibre Kmet" to Azulai. con(Words of Truth), which, according tains critical notes on theMasorah. In 1854 the manuscrijit of " Meleket Shelomoh," his first work, was in the hands of Xathan Coronel of Jerusalem, whereas that of his second work, "Dibre Emet," seems to have

been

lost.

BIBUOGBAPIIV:

.*i(ieni lia-(lediilim. I. letter .SViiH, No. Samhar}!. *^. Neubauer. in 3/ed, Stelnschneider. Cat. Dmll. .No. tlM);ldem, Hilir. mill. xvll. .>«; Jcic. Quart. Hex: 18n8-99. xi. 339; Polak. Pent.-<h nrrtinoni, Amsterdam, 1856; Kaufmann, In .V"»o(.«r)iritt, isiis, p. 40.

57;

II.

Azulal,

letter Dn/if/(. No. 7:

Jew. airim.

I.

IX;

L. G.

ADEBSBACH, 1823. first

He belonged

G. A.: (German poet; died

in to the generation that, in the

quarter of the nineteenth century, took an