Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 2.pdf/114

76 "

Arba' Kanfot Arcadius (see

Afixomen).

often left on the

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA In Moravia the Arba' Kanfot

body

[The oldest mention

in the grave. of the Arba'

Kanfot

is

in the code of

is

76

Jacob ben Asher, about 1350 (Tur Orali

Hayyim, xxiv.). who refers to Mordecai as quoted in the "Bet Yosef "), where, however, the custom is

found

merely alluded to (Mordecai's annotations to Alfasi, § 945, ed. Vienna, vol. i., 82c.).— D.] Bibliography: Men. 38 et seq.; Maimonides, Yad ha-HazaTmh, %izit Shulhan 'Aruk, Orah Hayyim, 8-LO.

A.

J.

HAYYIM

ARBACH

M.

C.

JACOB.

B.

See

H ayyim: b Jacob. ARBACHSHTER. See Ardasher. ARBATTIS A place mentioned in I Mace.

Drtjcker,

-



v.

23 in connection with Galilee, from both of which districts Simon Maccabeus brought back some captive Jews to Jerusalem. G. B. L. j. jr.

ARBEL.

See Beth-Arbel.

ARBELA.— Biblical '

Data

In I Mace.



ix. 2,

the district in which Mesaloth was situated, and through which ran the road to Gilgal (for which Josephus, "Ant." xii. 11, § 1, gives Galilee). It is probably to be identified with the modern " Irbid.

Arbela

is

Bibliography Land, p. 427.



Smith, Historical

Geography of the Holy G. B. L.

jr.

j.

In Rabbinical Literature



Arbela

is

men-

tioned in rabbinical sources as the home of a scholar named Mtai (Mattai), who lived in the middle of the second century before the common era (Abot i. 6). The Galilean Arbela, not far from Lake Gennesaret, is intended, where, in the twelfth century, this schol-

grave was still pointed out (Pethahiah of Begensburg, "Travels," ed. Margolin, p. 53). According to an old Baraita, familiar to the poet Eliezer Kalir, Arbela was a priests' city at the time of the destruction of the Temple, and even in later centuries it seems to have been an important town. ar's

Mention ginning),

made

is

of Arbelan linen (Gen. B. xix., beinferior quality; also, of

which was of

Arbelan spindles (Tosef., Parah xii. 16). Talmud and Midrash speak frequently of the Valley of Arbela.

Josephus also mentions the caves in the

vicinity.

Medieval Jewish literature often refers to the ruins synagogue of Arbela (Carmoly, " Itineraires de la Terre Sainte," p. 259), which are preserved today in the village of Irbid, as the Arabic form of the name runs. This Arbela, however, is undoubtedly distinct from the Arbela where the exilarch Mar Dkba dwelt (Yer. Sotah iv. 19(f), seeing that that scholar could hardly have ever been in Palestine. Accordingly, the Arbela in Adiabene, between the Lycus and the Caprus, 600 stadia (69 miles) from Gaugamela, must be understood and it is probable that to this city Benjamin of Tudela refers ("Itinof the



erary," ed. Asher,

i. 52, below). Bibliography: Jastrow, Dictionary, ii. 114; Kobut, Aruch Completum, i. 268 Pauly-WIssowa, Real-Encycloptictie, ii.

Rapoport, ' Erek Millin, pp. 191, 192 Sehiirer, Gesch. des Jlldischen Volkes, i. 290, ii. 369 Neubauer, G. T. pp. 219, 220, 374; Hirachensonn, Sheha' Hokmot, p. 43, Lemberg, 1883. 407







L. G.

ARBIB, EDTJARDO in the

United States National

Italian

deputy and au-

thor born at Florence, July 27, 1840. On the death of his father he was obliged to discontinue his studies and earn his livelihood as compositor and corrector

Arba' Kanfot. (Reproduced by permission from the collection Museum.)