AB, Ninth Day Of

Observed as a strict fast, lasting 24 hours. Commemorates the fall of the First and Second
Temples. Is also the anniversary of the Fall of Bettir in 135 ending the Bar Kokba war, and of  the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. It is the great day of mourning in the Jewish calendar. The  special ritual is keyed to sorrow, being largely the recital of the Book of Lamentations, the  Kinoth or Dirges relating Jewish martyrdom, and Judah Halevi's Zionide.

 Among the Ashkenazim this sense of mourning is emphasized by worshippers sitting on the floor, removing the curtain from the Ark, and by visiting cemeteries on that day. The Sephardic service is similar except that the  Ark is covered with a black curtain, and the reader records the number of the years "of the  exile." This fast is regarded as one of the observances to be abolished at the Restoration. It  was therefore one of the fasts that Shabbethai Zebi, as evidence of his Messiahship, ordered  abolished. Reform Jews no longer observe this fast.

AB, Fifteenth Day Of (Chamishah Asar):

Formerly observed as a minor Festival, the feast of the wood-offering. Israel had no such  holidays as the Fifteenth of AB and the Day of Atonement. For on those days the daughters of  Jerusalem would go out...and danced in the vineyards. And what did they say there? "Young man,  lift now thy eyes and see what thou choosest for thyself. Do not fix thy eye on beauty but on
family." Tannith, chap. iv.

Abba:

Aramaic form of Hebrew Ab, meaning father. Used theologically for God, and as a prenomen implying endearment. A number of the Amoraim bore this name.

Abinu Malkenu:

"Our Father our King." Well known section of the liturgy for the Penitential Days, New Year's and  Day of Atonement. Two lines of this prayer are quoted in the Talmud as part of a prayer recited  by Rabbi Akiba, during a drought. It appears at length in the liturgies of the 10th cent. Several  of the later additions are of historical significance having been added on the occasion of great
disaster or plague.

Ablutions:

Ritual purification by washing. Required by Jewish law after rising from sleep, prior to praying and eating, before entering a holy place. Priests were commanded to wash their hands and feet before entering the sanctuary (Ex. xxx. 19). The washing of the whole body is most frequently directed in Scripture. Of the many ablutions that formed part of the ancient ritual, the washing
before eating, the washing of the priests before the recital of the Blessing of the Kohanim, the immersion of females after menstruation, washing the dead, etc., still survive as orthodox practices.

Abodah:

"Divine Service", originally the sacrificial ritual of the Temple. The Term is now usually applied  to the special feature in the Additional Service of the Day of Atonement which recites the Temple ritual according to Leviticus xvi and the details in the Mishnah. The only service in which Jews prostrate themselves. The recital is the most picturesque in language and melody of the Atonement
service. The history of the traditional melody is not known. The service is well expressed by Solomon Ibn Gabirol in his poem "Happy who saw of old." The following stanza expresses the central theme of the Abodah:

Happy he who saw the crowd, That in adoration bowed
As they heard the priest proclaim: "One, Ineffable, the Name,"
And they answered, "Blessed be God the Lord Eternally,
He whom all created worlds extol." Happy he whose eyes
Saw at last the clouds of glory rise, But to hear it afflicts our soul.
___Alice Lucas, translation.

Abodah Zarah:

Worship of idols. Name of a treatise of the Mishnah. In five chapters it defines what is idolatry and who are idolaters. Idolatry is forbidden by Ex. xxxii and Deut. iv. 19.

Accents:

In Hebrew as in other languages and liturgies the accents are in writing to direct the stress of the voice, and as a mode of modulation in chanting. In Hebrew there are two systems of accents, the simple strokes above and below the words marking the stressing of syllables, and the more complex system of notation, generally called "trop," which is employed in cantillation. The
hyphen is used to connect short words to longer related terms, but the rhetorical accents, interrogation and exclamation do not exist in old texts. The codices which established the accents, punctuation, and vowels in use, were written by b. Asher of Tiberias, b. Naphtali, and Aha of Iraq.

Achoozah:

"Ownership." Designates joint colonization in Palestine by middle-class groups.

Acrostics:

Poetic compositions in which an initial, middle or end letter of each line form a name or phrase. A favorite form of poetry employed in liturgical writings. It is claimed that it was first used in Nahum i., ii., and iii. There are alphabetical acrostics in Psalms and Lamentations. Kalir is the best known of the piyut acrostic writers.

Adar:

Twelfth month in the Jewish calendar. Its high days are the Seventh, legendary date of the death of Moses, and so observed by Hebra Kadisha; Thirteenth__Fast of Esther; Fourteenth__Purim; and Fifteenth__Shushan-Purim.

Adar Sheni:

Second Adar; the name given the intercalary month. In years when it is introduced all anniversaries as well as the festival of Purim are celebrated during the second Adar, which is also called Ve-Adar.

Addir Hu:

Popular hymn, chanted during the Passover Seder service. It was introduced about the end of the 15th cent. Its tune is a 17th cent. composition.

Ad Meah Shanah:

"To a hundred years." Conventional birthday greeting sometimes lengthened to Ad Mea We'esrim Shana, to 120 years, a figure suggested by the life span of Moses, Hillel, Johanan b. Zakkai and R. Akiba.

Michael Alper, A.B., M.A., M.H.L.,
Rabbi, Dir. Jewish Education, Hebrew Orphan Asylum, N.Y.C.

Adonai, Adonai:

Hymn containing the thirteen attributes recited during the Atonement service. The author was Amittai, and the text is based on Ex. xxxiv. 6, 7.

Adonai Melek:

"The Lord Reigneth"; a poem included in the penitential service, the refrain of which is composed of variants of this phrase.

Adon Olam:

The most familiar hymn in the Jewish liturgy, and used in all rituals. It is a metrical hymn, 10 lines in length in the Ashkenazi version, 12 in the Sephardic, and in some rituals 16 lines. It glorifies the supremacy of God. Though it has been credited to Solomon Ibn Gabirol its author is unknown, but it is presumed to have been composed in the 12th cent., and was inserted in the liturgies of the 15th cent. The following, by Jessie E. Sampter is a good paraphrase of the first stanza:

The everlasting Lord who reigned, Ere yet was formed or shape or thing,
When all was made as he decreed, Was even then acknowledged King.

Afikomen:

The name applied to the part of the Matza,* generally the middle one of the three, which the head of the house lays aside at the beginning of the Seder* service. Part of it is hidden and the finder rewarded. The rest is distributed at the end of the meal, and is the last thing eaten at the Seder service. There are various interpretations of the name and the origin of the custom. It is regarded as symbolic of the meat of the Paschal sacrifice which during temple days was the last thing eaten.

Michael Alper, A.B., M.A., M.H.L.,
Rabbi, Dir. Jewish Education, Hebrew Orphan Asylum, N.Y.C.

Akedah:

"Sacrifice of Isaac." This incident in the life of the first patriarch and his son is frequently referred to in the liturgy. The use of the ram's horn on the New Year is traditionally related to this incident. The arrangement of the Akedah in the New Year liturgy was made by Rab in the third cent.

Al Het:

Confession of sin, each sentence of which begins with the formula, "Forgive us for the sin we have committed before Thee in..." the particular sins then being enumerated in alphabetical order. The confession is inserted in each "Amidah" of the Day of Atonement and its repetition, except in the closing prayer, "Ne'ilah."

'Aliyah:

"Going up": Applied (1) ritually to the invitation to go up to the reading desk during the reading of the Torah, to participation in any Mitzvah in the synagogue, (2) to biblically ordained three pilgrimages to Jerusalem, (3) to the modern immigration into Palestine. Of these latter the first ' Aliyah was 1880-1905; the second, 1905-14; the third, 1919-24; the fourth 1924-29; the fifth began 1930.

Amarna Tablets:

A collection of clay tablets found in 1887, in the ruins of a city built c. 1360 b.c.e., at Tel El Amarna, on the east bank of the Nile, in Upper Egypt. A considerable number of the 300 cuneiform inscriptions are letters from the Egyptian governors of Syria and Palestine written during the reigns of Amenophis IV. and his father.

Amen:

"So is it," word used by Jews, Christians and Muslims in affirmation of a prayer. Probably the nearest to a universal word. It is first mentioned in this form in I Num. v. 22.

American Academy For Jewish Research:

Organized in New York in 1920, for the purpose of furthering Jewish learning through scholarly undertakings of a cooperative character. The Academy holds periodic meetings. President, Dr. Alexander Marks, Vice-President, Dr. Israel Davidson, Secretary, Prof. Salo Baron.

American Hebrew, The

Weekly journal, the first number of which was published in New York, Nov. 21, 1879. It was founded chiefly through the efforts of F. de Sola Mendes* and Philip Cowen,* the publisher of the paper from its first number, to his retirement in 1906. Joseph Jacobs, Herman Bernstein, and Rabbi Isaac Landman, have been its editors. David A. Brown, prominent in national relief campaigns, is the present publisher. The American Hebrew has absorbed the "Jewish Tribune," which in its turn absorbed the "Jewish Standard," and at this date (1933) is the only Jewish weekly in English published in Manhattan. It represents the Reform anti-nationalist viewpoint.

American Jewish Historical Society:

Organized in New York in 1892 by a group of distinguished Jews, among whom were Cyrus Adler, Sabato Morais, Alexander Kohut, Kaufmann Kohler, Prof. Charles Gross, Simon W, Rosendale, and Henrietta Szold. Its object is "to collect and publish material bearing upon the history of America, and to promote the study of Jewish history in general, preferably so far as the same is related to American Jewish history or connected with the causes of emigration from various parts of the world to this continent." Thirty-two volumes, called Publications, embodying original research in the field of American Jewish History, the work of a small devoted band of scholars, have been published. They consist of a selection of the papers read at the public annual meetings, and are the basis of the many popular works on this subject which have appeared in the last few decades. The Library of the Society, consisting of about 5,000 volumes and much manuscript material, is open daily to students in its chosen field. Recently it has been enriched by the gift of several hundred early American books and numerous letters and manuscript documents, presented by Dr. A.S. W. Rosenbach, in memory of his mother Isabella Rosenbach. Part of them are on exhibit in the Society's Museum, together with other similar material, objects of historical and synagogue art, historical relics, portraits, etc. Both the Library and the Museum are located in the Schiff building of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Oscar S. Straus served as president from its inception to 1898; Dr. Cyrus Adler, 1899-1921; and the present incumbent since 1922 is Dr. A.S.W. Rosenbach.

Edward D. Coleman, B.A.
Librarian, American Jewish Historical Society, N.Y.C.

American League For The Defense of Jewish Rights:

Founded in New York in 1933 for the purpose of organizing the boycott of German imports in response to the brutal treatment of the Jews and other dissidents by the Hitler regime. Founded by Dr. A. Coralnik who was the first president, and who has been succeeded by Samuel Untermyer.

Amnon Of Mayence:

subject of the best known of the medieval legends because it relates the origin of the prayer, describing the New Year as the Day of Judgment, Unetanneh Tokef, recited during the Penitential services. According to the legend, R. Amnon, a wealthy and respected Jew, was often urged by the Archbishop of Mayence to become Christian. Finally R. Amnon asked for three days' grace in which
to consider the matter. When at the end of three days he failed to appear the archbishop had Amnon arrested. The latter pronounced a verdict on himself. The latter pronounced a verdict on himself, his tongue should be cut out for having doubted the Unity of God. The archbishop instead ordered his hands and feet to be cut off. Thus mutilated Amnon was carried into the synagog on New Year's Day. As the Hazan was about to recite the Kedusha Amnon gave a signal, and then recited the prayer called, from its initial words, "Unetanneh Tokef," which is a description of the Day of Judgment. No sooner had he finished the prayer than he expired; and his body immediately disappeared. Three days later he appeared to R. Kalonymus in a dream, taught him the prayer, and asked him to spread it broadcast in Israel.

The oldest mention of this story may be found in the notes on Asheri, written by Israel of Krems, c.1400. The story is found in the Mahzor of the Roman rite for the New Year's Day, published 1541.

Amulets:

The belief in the efficacy of charms, regarded as sacred and endowed with supernatural and occult influences, is universal in its scope. There is hardly a tribe anywhere on earth, among the most primitive as well as among the most advanced, which does not entertain some form of superstitious practice. The rabbit's foot and horseshoe have their counterparts among the inhabitants of the
jungles of Africa as well as the dwellers in the Arctic regions. Superstition has its origin in the fear which natural phenomena, instilled in primitive man, for whom thunder, lightning, the earthquake and tempest meant nothing more than the wrathful explosions of an evil spirit. This spirit had to be propitiated by means of rites and ceremonies. The variation in practice appears in the individual reaction of each tribe or group of peoples to these unexpected crises in life, but essentially the beliefs are the same.

Superstitious delusions were prevalent among the Jews in biblical times, as evidenced by the strong condemnation against them found in many passages in the Bible. They were regarded as abominations, originating from the idolatry and paganism of the peoples with whom Israel came in contact, such as the Egyptians, the Babylonians, and the Persians. "After the doings of the land
of Egypt wherein ye dwell shall ye not do" (Leviticus xviii. 3). "For the King of Babylon standeth at the parting of ways, at the heads of the two ways, to use divination, he shaketh the arrow to and fro, he inquireth of the Teraphim, he looketh in the liver" (Ezekiel xxi.26). A complete list of all the forms of superstition and magical rites is given in Deuteronomy xviii. 10 with a firm command to shun them, "there shall not be found among you any one what maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, one that useth divination, a soothsayer, a sorcerer. a sorcerer, a charmer, or one that consulteth a ghost or a familiar spirit, or a nec-romancer."

While the Bible does not countenance any superstition, the Talmud does contain numerous references to the permissibility of resorting to talismanic expedients by individual scholars. Rabbi Meir was of the opinion that it is permissible to carry a hen's egg, a fox's tooth, or a nail from the gallows on the Sabbath day as a remedy, but the sages prohibited these practices even on a week-day because the person would be guilty of imitating the "ways of the Amorite" (Sabbath 67a).

Amulets have been common among the Jews from time immemorial. An amulet consists of a piece of parchment upon which are inscribed either Hebrew characters or sacred symbols. Originally they were attached to the body by means of straps. Hence the word, "Kamea," which means to "fasten or to knot." Charms were used principally to ward off the evil eye or the evil spirit. Most
frequently even today, an amulet is used to protect the mother at childbirth. Special placards are placed on the walls of the room occupied by mother and child. The verses used are taken from the well-known prayers, such as the "Shema" and the Psalms, and a liberal use of the ineffable name of the Deity. The words are hardly ever written in their natural order. They are twisted and
changed by means of permutation, which, however, follows along a definite system, known as the "AT-bash," the "Al-bam," etc.

Hasidim served to encourage the practice of amulet writing, but the strife between Jacob Emden* and Jonathan Eybeschutz,* resulted in checking its popularity among the Jews.

Reuben Kaufman, M.A., D.H.L. R.K.
Rabbi, Temple Emanuel, Paterson, N.J.

Anathema:

Exercise of the ban or the right of excommunication. Evolved in post-exilic period. Its historical origin is not clear. In its earliest stages the Herem was developed in three stages, the first two probationary, only the third being complete excommunication. It was probably first practiced by the Essenes.

Angelology

Angels are symbolic beings, messengers from On High whose names are usually associated with the mission assigned to them. The term is used as a figure of speech, a poetic expression, or an attempt in verbal picturization to present the concept of the medium through which the Divine Will exercises its power. Angels are most frequently mentioned in the early chapters of Genesis,
in the apocalyptic literature and in the legends of the rabbis. In the lives of the Patriarchs, Abraham * is host to three angels. At the intended sacrifice of Isaac on Mount Moriah, Abraham is told by an angel that he has now successfully passed the test of his faith in God. Isaac's life is devoid of any reference to angels. Jacob, his son, seems to compensate for this omission, since he sees angels in his dreams whenever he is beset by danger, and both are abundant in his career. His vision of the ladder with the ascending and descending angels has been an inspiration to many.

It portrays the sense of security that comes to him who finds God in a deserted place, and also the possibility of rising above one's environment and building a ladder reaching to heaven even when its lowest rung is supported on unholy ground. An angel announces to him the time for his return home; an angel wrestles with him in the darkness of the night and ultimately blesses him with the name of "Israel." No angels are included in the Revelation at Sinai. The Midrash says that the prophets were called angels. Moses, it appears from the text (Num. xx. 16), refers to himself as an angel (messenger) who redeemed Israel from Egypt. The prophet Haggai (i.13) explicitly speaks of himself as an angel. The key to the whole problem is to be found in the Psalms (civ. 4) where the wind is called God's Angel. An angel is a messenger, for good or otherwise, and the elements of nature become angelic beings in biblical poetry when they fulfill the command of God in a specific manner. In Isaiah (xxxvii. 36) one of the destructive forces of nature is called "an angel of God" in bringing death to the army of Sennacherib who had besieged Jerusalem.

An angel may also represent the personification of an ideal, so that we read of angels whose names are Zedek, Hesed, Sholom, and Emes. Two angels escort the Jew home from the synagog on the eve of the Sabbath (Sabbath 119). If the home radiates love and contentment, the good angel says "May the next Sabbath be a repetition of this," and the evil angel reluctantly answers "Amen." If conflict and unhappiness prevail in the home, the angel of evil pronounces the same wish, and the good angel must respond accordingly. An enlightening statement is to be found in Midrash Rabba (Vayera) and in the Jerusalem Talmud (Rosh Hashanah) where it is said that the Jews brought the catalog of angelic names to Palestine when they returned from the Babylonian exile. This simplifies the abundance of angelic references in the books of Ezekiel* and Daniel.*

B.A. Daskal
Rabbi, Cong. Rodfei Zedek, Chicago, Illinois.

Ani:

Sephardic equivalent of Shalet or Sholent. Its possession was regarded as conclusive evidence of Jewish practices by Maranos.

Anim Zemirot:

Mystical hymn, recited at the close of the regular morning service in the orthodox liturgy. Its author was R. Judah of Speyer, 12th cent.

Anti-Juif, L':

Name assumed by nine different short-lived publications issued in France and Algiers and directed against the Jews. The first "Anti-Juif," a weekly, describing itself as an "organ of social defense," published in Paris, Dec., 1881, to Jan., 1882.

Anti-Nazi League To Champion Human Rights:

Organized in New York in the winter of 1933 in succession to the American League for the Defense of Jewish Rights,* for the purpose of enforcing the boycott of German imports. The League of which Samuel Untermyer* is president, and Ezekiel Rabinowicz, secretary, influenced the customers' resistance which led the department stores and Woolworth's stores to stop importing
wares manufactured in Germany.

Apples and Honey:

The New Year is symbolically ushered in by partaking of sweet apples dipped in honey at the beginning of the evening meal. An appropriate blessing is recited.

Arba 'Kanfot:

"Four-corners." The garment is passed over the head, so that part falls in front and part behind. To its four corners are fastened the Zizit in the same manner as to the Tallit. It is therefore also called the tallit-katon. The Arba 'Kanfot, like the tallit, is worn by males in pursuance of Num. xv. 37-41 and Deut. xxii. 12.

Archisynagogus:

Synagog chief, a term which first came into use during the Roman era. It was applied in derision to Alexander Severus. In the Babylonian Talmud the word is translated, parnas, and as such had vogue for the official now generally described as the president of the congregation.

Aristeas, Letter Of:

This is a letter purported to have been written by one Aristeas, an officer of the court of Ptolemy Philadelphus, giving an account of the compilation of the Septuagint, c.278-280 b.c.e. Because of several internal contradictions, it is certain that the writer was not the official that he claims to have been. The letter was probably written by a Jewish scribe who made of himself a Greek courtier so as to have more authority for his work, which is not to be regarded, as an historical document, but which has value as containing the then view of the composition of the Septuagint.

G. George Fox, PH.D.
Rabbi, South Shore Temple, Chicago, Ill.

Arithmetic:

The computations in the Scriptures show that reckoning was known to the Hebrews. The use of the Hebrew letters as numerals is ancient. In the 8th cent. when Jewish mathematicians are mentioned with frequency it became the practice to use the Hebrew letter numerals for addition and subtraction by writing them from left to right in the same way as the Arabic numerals are used.

Ark:

The receptacle or closet at the east end of the synagogue used to house the Scrolls of the Law, and frequently referred to as the Holy Ark. The building of an ark is first referred to in Ex. xxv. 10, when Moses is directed to build an ark of acacia wood for the housing of the tablets on which the commandments were written. This ark was to be an important feature of the Holy of Holies. The idea was elaborated in Solomon's temple (I Kings viii. 1-9).

The description given by Tacitus as reported by Pompey who entered the Holy of Holies indicates that the Ark was not then in existence. A legend relates that Jeremiah before the first fall of Jersualem, buried the Ark and its contents in Mount Sinai.

Aruk:

Hebrew for dictionary. The first biblical dictionary was written in the 12th cent. by Solomon ibn Parhon of Aragon, but a dictionary of the Talmud was attempted three centuries earlier by Zemach b. Paltiel of Pumbedita.

Ashamnu:

Opening word of the confession recited in orthodox synagogs during the Atonement services, and accompanied word for word by the beating of the breast. In form it is an alphabet of transgressions. It is of Talmudic origin, about the 1st cent.

Ashirah:

First words of Moses' "Song of the Sea" (EX. xv.) which is included in the liturgy of the morning prayers.

Ashkenazim:

Term applied to German Jews, or to all those Jews who follow the Minhag* Ashkenaz. As applied to Germany Ashkenaz appears in the letter of Ibn Shaprut* to the Chazar,* King Joseph, and it was used in the Hebrew literature of the 11th cent. to denote either Germany or German Jew.

A serious attempt has been made from time to time by anti-Semites to discover racial differences between the Ashkenazim and the Sephardim.* There is, however, no warrant for such assertions. The divisions which found their expression in social customs, ritual differences, and in the pronunciation of Hebrew, are wholly environmental in their origin. The first expulsion from France, in 1306, broke the natural alignment between the Spanish-Provencal-French-Lorraine Jews. The exiles were forced into Germany, and gradually spread into Bohemia, Hungary, etc. Germany thus became a new base, and so gradually all the Jews in central Europe were called Ashkenazim. The expulsions from Germany forcing the Jews eastward created the third distinction, ritualistically Minhag Polen, and in geographic terminology "Ost Juden," or East-European Jews.

Asiyah:

Cabalistic term describing the world in the making. One of four spiritual worlds, the other three being, Azilut, Beriah and Yezirah.

Astrology:

Although Persian influence affected the Jews so considerably that angelology was introduced into Judaism through the contact formed during the Captivity, there is every evidence that the Jews were not moved to accept astrological superstitions till after 70. Both Josephus and Tacitus call attention to the lack of superstition among the Jews, and to their refusal to accept signs and
wonders in the skies. The Sibylline Books make the same report, but approvingly. The Romans were both adepts and believers in the Chaldean science, and the Jews became more interested in it during the development of the Talmud. In the Middle Ages the Jews were credited with being experts at the art, and there exists a wide literature on the subject in Hebrew. Some of the presumed Jewish adepts were, however, astronomers, to whom popular opinion ascribed all sorts of powers and interest. This seems to have been particularly true of the great Rabbi Low of Prague. Jewish teachings are averse to all sorts of divination, prognostication, etc., but the Hebrew greeting "Mazzal tob" is a remnant of astrological superstition.

Astronomy:

Stars and planets are mentioned in the Bible. The use of a dial, the first reference in any literature to the existence of a sun clock, in II Kings xx. 9-11, points to knowledge of the movement of the planets and an ability to calculate the length of shadows as applied to a fixed area. That the Jews accepted the pre-Copernican theory that the stars move about the earth, seems clear from the language employed in all descriptions of the motion of the sun and the moon, but as this form of simile, suggesting that the earth stands still, is even today very popular it is not conclusive evidence as to the knowledge of scholars in ancient times.

The accepted explanation of the two-day festivals, two days of New Year, etc., as due to the watching and reporting of the rising of the new moon, suggests that in early Talmudic times the Jewish knowledge of astronomy was extremely rudimentary, though one rabbi boasts that he knew the ways of the stars better than he knew the streets of his home town. In the early Middle Ages Jews
became famous as astronomers and wrote considerably on the subject in Hebrew, and later in other languages. The greatest Jewish astronomer in the 19th cent. was Sir William Herschell. The names of about one hundred Jewish astronomers of some importance have been recorded since the beginning of the 11th cent.

Atonement, Day Of:

Instituted Lev. xvi. to be observed on the 10th day of the seventh month, as a complete fast. Its actual observance is only indirectly alluded to in the Pentateuch, whereas it became the key of Judaic observances in the Maccabean era, and has so continued to the present day. The five services, Kol Nidre, Shaharith, Musaf, Minchah and Neilah, are religiously and artistically a complete exposition of the Jewish attitude on the relationship of man to God, and to his fellow humans, on sin and atonement; combining in the Abodah the Temple service, in the confessions the Mishnaic catalog of transgressions, and in the Kol Nidre and the Unetanneh Tokef the religious and spiritual concepts of the Middle Ages.

Attah Hore'ta:

Popular collection of biblical verses recited in the Askenazic ritual on Simchas Torah before the procession of scrolls.

Ayin:

16th letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The name represents "eye" which was its original shape. Its numerical value is 70. Generally silent, but the Sephardim sound it ng.

Ayin Hara:

"Evil eye." The belief that those possessed of the baleful influence can injure with a glance. The power of the "evil eye" is referred to in Deut. xxvii. 54, 56, and there is an allusion to it in Job vii. 8.

It was firmly believed by all ancients, that some malignant influence darted from the eyes of envious or angry persons and so infected the air as to penetrate and corrupt the bodies of both living creatures and inanimate objects.__Frederick Thomas Elworthy, The Evil Eye, London, 1895.

Azharot:

Poems relating to the 613 precepts, formerly part of the festival rituals.