Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 1.pdf/448

400 —

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Alisch

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Allfabif

let tilt' imipiTly slay In iMTft**'! |K>s.'«'ssi»in of Ihi' pun-haser. Anil as a 4'onslitfnulnn of Uie sali* by im judtffs for the alimony of tbesaUl wife, it shall Ik' thi' duiv of hiT salil hiisbanil and his helrst and siici"»*S'iors to kri'p hannk's;*. to h'IH'I. and n'niove from the said A. l»*n A. and from his siuffssoi-s alh-lalms In the world arlslnir on the sjiid Meld hy reason of our sale; litii ihi' same shall HMiialn in the i>ossesslon of himself and his siieeessoix free of any eost to them, just as If he [the husband] hltiiThis ^iianinty shall n-maln in fon-e like a self had sold It. )niaranty (riven to any other lepal deeil of purrhase or to any Judieial vrit of jilimon'y in favor of married or widowed women by the custom in Israel, fnim this date on and forever. " All of which was done before us Jud»res on day month year ... in the town of ... and l>einK enllKlitenol by the power of Heaven, we have written an<l sltrmtl this judicial act and tlellvered to A. ben ... to be in his hand and in the hands of his successors as a lev.'al rijfht iiint pnMif." (Sij^ned by the three dayyanim..

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J.

ALISCH, ISAAC BEN MOSES. Isaac

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,

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iii;x

ALITYROS (ALITURUS):


 * )rofleiency.

In Reform synagogues the rending from the Law, which is of len on the shorter scale of the three years' cycle, is done exclusively by the reader, and no one is

called

up

to read,

BtBLlooRAPHV: «((. V. .'JiVi. /(Meg. 111. 21: Snferim. x. t.; Shulhan *Anik. Ornh Hamitni. pp. 13.>-i:W: Maimonldes, i'od'fiii-Hnza/Ki/i. section 7Vn'Hof. S 12: Abudnihim. .Siilllauiburver, K. It. T. 11. s.v. Viirlc/niimcii iiiif ilcr Tlwra. For the sale of the various privileges connected with 'AUyab see MizwoT. x^

(liir;

D. E.

See Elles,

Aclor. of Jewisli

Tlirougli liim Joscplnis

became acquainted with llie emprt'ss Poppiua whose special favorite the actor always had been and obtained the jiardon for those priests whoni Feli., the procurator of Jiidea. had sent to Home. In the novel by Sieiikiewicz, "Quo Vadis," Alityros instructs Jsero in the iirl of gesticulation, and accompanies tlie emperor to Greece. Bibliography: Jospphus, Life. il.

onler to spare them the humiliation of never being called up to the a. In the fourteenth century the whole sidra was read alouil by the reader, exception being made only with the Bah Mizwaii, llie youth to be initialed into the Law, who still reads his portion himself in order to give proof of his all, in

.Miim>

birth, at lliicnurl ni Xi ni.

Getich.

400

Jiiil.

ill

Horn,

i.

8 4; 21, i». 101.

Vogelsteln and RIeger,

W.

'ALIYAH

M

In synagogal services, the going up, or being called up, to the reading-desk (nlinniMr), for According to the reading of a portion of the Law. an ancient institution of the synagogue seven men are ,««/;•« (the weekly called tip in succession to read the

Pentateuch-lesson) on each Sabbath morning: si. men, for the reading of the appointed portion on the Day of Atonement and live, on the three chief festivals. In addition to these, there is the iiiiiftir. the one called uji for the reading of iiconcUidingclmpter, who in addition reads llie portion from the I'ropliets, called Haftarah." On new-moon and half holidays, four men, and on Sabbath afternoon, on -Monday and Thursday mornings, on Hanukkaliand Puriin mornings, anti on fast -days, only three men ari' called up The the portions read on these days being shorter. first of the men called up in orthodo.v synagogues should be a Cohen or Aaronite. the second a Levite. the third and further members of t lie rota are ordinary Israelites, the one hiudier in rank always preceding the one inferior, with the except ion of the maftir, who. though last, may be a Cohen or a Levite. Men are as a rule called up who have during the week had especial occasion for joj-; a bridegroom or father of a bride; and the father of a new-born child, whose mother for the first time appears in the synagogue. On mournful occasions also men are called u|i. as at the anniversary (Jnlirzeit) of a parent's deatli. Down to the twelfth century, the men called up were themselves expected to read a portion aloud, those unable to read the Law being considered unworthy of the honor. The first concession to ignorance was made in the case of an illiterate Cohen: when there was no other present to be called up as the first, Saadia suggested that the reader should prompt him, in order to enable him to read his portion. (For further information on the origin and ile velopment of the reading from the Law, as part of the service, see LiTCROY.y In the twelfth century it had become the established custom for the reader to prompt in the accentuation and cantillation of the words; and the next step was to have the reader prompt the actual words to those unable to read at



ALJAMA A

used

in nld olticial

Spanish term of Arabian origin

documents

to designate the

.self-

governing communities of ]Ioors and Jews living under Spanish rule. The Jewish communities of Spain, owing to their social isolation and to the religious and political regulations imposed upon them, had always formed groups apart from the rest of the popidiilion. The authority exercised by their own ndiliis and the .system of tax-collection by the heads of llie congregations for the administration of communal affairs, placeil them almost coinpletely without the jurisdiction of the governmenl of the country: ami, as aresult, they soon came lobe dealt with by the officials not as subjects amenable to the general law of the land, but as collective bodies with special privileges and sjiecial duties. Thus, theVisigothic kings imposed a tax not uponciuh individtial Jew or upon the headsof families, but upon the comnumity as a whole, allowing the communal authorities to fix the individual rate of taxation. But both under the Visigoths and under the Moors there was neither regularity in the ti-ansactions of the rabbis

and elders nor system in the attiltide of the government toward the Jewish cimimunities. With the reestablishment of Christian rule, however, the relation between the government and its Jewish subjects graduallv became a well-detined one. In 'i and 1284 in "Toledo, in 127.3 in Barcelona, in 1290 at Iluete. and on more than one occasion during those years in Portugal, councils were held of Spanish officials and Jewish representatives for the i)tirpose of establishing a just rate of taxation Separate for Jewish communities, and of deviJurisdic- sing adequate means for tax-collection, This first official recognition by the tion. government of the Jewish communities as separate bodies led to a still further change in the treatment of the Jewish congregations and in the legislation, both local and national, regarding them. The bishopsof the various districts a.ssumed imiuediate authority over them. and. in conjunction with Jewish representatives, formed rules which were henceforth t(j govern the communities. The elections of rabbis and judges were to be held at stated intervals, and the names of these dignit^iries submitted to the bishop for approval: there was to be a "rabbi of the court" for the presentation of communal questions before the proper authorities; and the heads of the congregation were made answerable for the conduct of the community. In all

government

action, whether local or general, the unit considered was in most cases the community, not the individual Jew. A good example of how much self-government was granted to the .Jewish Aljamas is afforded by the " resolution of the meeting " or teenna (a Hebrew