by Elie Wiesel
HOLY ARI (1534–1572): Rabbi Isaac Luria Ashkenazi. Known as Ha’ari, he was born in Jerusalem, lived for a time in Egypt, and eventually settled in Safed, where he became a leading rabbi in Ottoman-era Palestine. He is considered to be the founder of contemporary kabbalah, the study of Jewish mysticism.
LEVI YITZHAK OF BERDITCHEV (1740–1809): One of the most beloved members of the second generation of Hasidic rabbis. A child prodigy from a dynasty of rabbis, he was a disciple of the Maggid of Mezritch (see entry below) and went on to become the rabbi of several communities in Poland, most famously Berditchev. Known for his compassion for all and advocacy before God for the Jewish people, he also composed popular religious folk songs that are sung to this day.
MAGGID (1700/1710?–1772): Also known as the Maggid of Mezritch. Rabbi Dov Ber Ben Avraham of Mezritch (a village in western Ukraine) was a leading disciple of the Baal Shem Tov (see entry above) and became his successor and the main architect of Hasidic Judaism. His circle of disciples spread Hasidism throughout Eastern Europe.
MORDECHAI (fifth century BCE): One of the main characters in the biblical Book of Esther. A leader of the Jewish community-in-exile in ancient Persia, he was also a member of King Ahasuerus’s court. Cousin and guardian of the king’s wife, Esther, he was instrumental in the king’s nullification of his genocidal decree against the Jews of Persia. He and Esther established the Purim holiday to celebrate the triumph of the Jews over those who wished to destroy them. See also ESTHER, HAMAN, and PURIM.
NIGGUN (plural, NIGGUNIM): A type of religious song that can consist of biblical verses, classical Jewish poetry, and/or wordless melodic improvisation. It can be sung either as a lament or in joyous celebration. Niggunim are particularly employed in Hasidic prayer services and other religious celebrations.
POSKIM (singular, POSEK): Rabbis possessing unique scholarly and legal sensibilities who are regarded by their peers and communities as decisors of contemporary Jewish religious law. Their rulings are of particular importance where no obvious precedents exist in the Talmud and in medieval codes of Jewish law.
PURIM: A Jewish holiday that falls on the fourteenth day of the Hebrew month of Adar. It commemorates the victory, in the fifth century BCE, of the Jews of the Persian Empire over Haman, the anti-Semitic vizier of King Ahasuerus, who was the architect of a genocidal governmental decree against the Jews. The story of Purim, as recounted in the biblical Book of Esther, tells how the king’s Jewish wife, Esther, and her cousin, Mordechai, were responsible for the nullification of the king’s decree. Purim is celebrated by giving charity to the poor, exchanging gifts of food, a festive afternoon meal, and evening and morning readings of the Book of Esther. See also ESTHER, HAMAN, and MORDECHAI.
RABBEINU TAM (1100–1171): Rabbi Yaakov ben Meir, also known as Rabbeinu Tam, was a preeminent scholar, liturgical poet, Talmudic commentator, and decisor of Jewish law in the twelfth century. Born in France, he was a grandson of Rashi (see following entry) and considered one of the first Tosafists (see TOSAFOT).
RAMBAM; RABEINU MOSHE (1138–1204): Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, also known as Maimonides or by the acronym Rambam, was a towering figure in medieval Jewish philosophy, science, law, and Talmudic scholarship. Born in Spain, he fled persecution there and eventually settled in Egypt, where, in addition to writing groundbreaking works of Jewish law, philosophy, science, and scholarship, he served as head of the Jewish community, was a practicing physician, and was one of the court physicians to the sultan Saladin.
RASHI (1040–1105): Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, also known by the acronym Rashi, was the French-born author of seminal and essential commentaries on the Bible and Talmud that have enabled centuries of beginning and advanced students to comprehend both the basic meaning of the text and more esoteric explanations. He also composed liturgical poems mourning the slaughter of German Jews during the First Crusade.
SAADIA GAON (882–942): Rabbi Saadia ben Yosef Al-Fayyumi wrote landmark works of biblical commentary, philosophy, Hebrew linguistics, and law. Born in Egypt, he studied under the rabbis of Tiberias and was eventually appointed the gaon, or head, of the legendary yeshiva in Sura, Babylonia (present-day Iraq). He wrote in Arabic as well as in Hebrew and is considered the founder of Judeo-Arabic literature.
SH’MA YISRAEL: The first two words of Deuteronomy 6:4, which capture the essence of Jewish belief. It is also the de facto name given to the compilation of several paragraph-long excerpts from the Bible that are recited as part of the morning, evening, and bedtime Jewish prayer services. The complete verse of Deuteronomy 6:4 is traditionally recited by Jews as they approach death.
SIMKHAT TORAH: A one-day holiday that occurs in the Hebrew month of Tishrei, following the Sukkot holiday. It celebrates the annual conclusion of the weekly Sabbath cycle of public readings from the Torah (with a reading from the last section of Deuteronomy) and the beginning of the new cycle (with a reading from the first section of Genesis). A festive occasion, it is also celebrated by carrying the Torah scrolls through the synagogue, in song and dance.
TA’ANIT ESTHER: The fast day that is observed on the day before Purim. It commemorates Queen Esther’s decision to fast for three days before appearing, uninvited, before King Ahasuerus, setting in motion the chain of events that would result in the nullification of the decree of genocide against the Jews of the Persian Empire. See also ESTHER, HAMAN, MORDECHAI, and PURIM.
TOSAFOT: A compilation of several generations’ worth of commentaries on the Talmud—in particular, on Rashi’s commentary on the Talmud—by dozens of rabbis from France and Germany from the twelfth through the fourteenth centuries. The commentaries traditionally appear alongside the text of the Talmud on the outer side of each page, with Rashi’s commentary appearing alongside the text of the Talmud on the inner side of the page. See also RASHI.
VIDUI: The Jewish deathbed confessional prayer that is also recited at several points during the Yom Kippur prayer service.
YAVNEH: A city in central Israel that traces its origins to the biblical era, as mentioned in the biblical book of 2 Chronicles. As Jerusalem was being besieged by the Roman Army in 67 CE, permission was given by the Roman commander Vespasian to Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai and his students to establish a yeshiva in Yavneh, which, with the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, eventually became a center of Jewish life in the Land of Israel in the Roman and Byzantine eras and, for a time, the home of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish High Court. Conquered by an Islamic Army in the seventh century, it was re-established as a Jewish city in 1948.
A Note About the Author
The author of more than sixty works of fiction and nonfiction, Elie Wiesel was awarded the United States Congressional Gold Medal, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the French Legion of Honor’s Grand Cross, an honorary knighthood of the British Empire, and, in 1986, the Nobel Peace Prize. He was the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University for forty years, until his death in 2016.
A Note About the Illustrator
Mark Podwal has written and illustrated more than a dozen books, and has illustrated more than two dozen works by such authors as Elie Wiesel, Heinrich Heine, Harold Bloom, and Francine Prose. King Solomon and His Magic Ring, a collaboration with Wiesel, received the Silver Medal from the Society of Illustrators, and You Never Know, a collaboration with Prose, received a National Jewish Book Award. His art is represented in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Prague’s National Gallery, and Jewish museums in Berlin, Vienna, Prague, and New York, among other venues. Honors he has received include being named Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government, the Jewish Cultural Achievement Award from the Foundation for Jewish Culture, and the Gratias Agit Prize from the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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