Aaron Acharon (i. e. the younger), a rabbi born at Nicomedia in the beginning of the 14th century. He belonged to the sect of the Caraites. We have from him several Hebrew works on mystical theology (The Tree of Life, The Garden of Faith, The Garden of Eden), and a literal commentary on the Pentateuch, entitled fflitl 1HG (vail of the law). — Hoefer, Bio- graphie Generate, i, G.
Aaron ha-Rishox (i. e. the elder), a celebrated rabbi of the sect of the Caraites, practiced medicine at Constantinople toward the close of the 13th century. He had the reputation of being a great philosopher and an honest man. lie is the author of an Essay on Hebrew Grammar pS"1 ?"1^S, " perfect in beauty," Constantinople, 1581), and of a Jewish prayer-book ac- cording to the rites ofthe Caraitic sect (ni*>SPl "lEO, Venice, 1528-29, 2 vols. 4to). He also wrote com mi n- taries on the Pentateuch, the first prophets (Joshua, the Judges. Samuel, and the Kings), on Isaiah and the Psalms, and on Job, all of which are still inedited. — Hoefer, Biographie Generate, i, 6.
Aaron ben-Aser, or Aaron t>ar-Moses, a celebrated Jewish rabbi, lived in the first half of the 1 1th century. He is the author of a Treatise on the Accents of the Hebrew Language, printed in 1517. Aaron collected the various readings of the Old Testa- ment in the manuscripts of the libraries ofthe West, while his colaborator, Ben-Nephthali, searched for va- rious readings in the Eastern libraries. These varia- tions of the text, though purely grammatical, gave rise to two celebrated sects among the Jews — that of the Occidentals, who followed Ben-Aser ; and that of
AAROX BEN-CIIAYBI
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the Orientals, which only admitted the authority of I Ben-Nephthali. Their editions give for the first time the vowel signs, the invention of which lias therefore frequently been ascribed to them. The works of Aaron ben-Aser have been printed, together with those of Moses ben-David, at the end of the Biblia Rab- binica of Venice. — Hoefer, Biographie Ghiercde, i, 7.
Aaron ben-Chayirfl, a celebrated rabbi, born at Fez in the middle of the 16th century. He was the head of the synagogues of Fez and Morocco. In order to superintend the printing of his works, he made, in 1609, a voyage to Venice, where he died soon after. His works are (in Hebrew), The Heart of Aaron, con- taining two commentaries on Joshua and the Judges (Venice, 1609, fol.) ; The Offering of Aaron, or remarks on the book Siphra, an ancient commentary on Levit- icus (Venice, 1609, fol.); The Measures of Aaron, or an essay on the 13 hermeneutical rules of Rabbi Ismael. — Hoefer, Biographie Generate, i, 7 ; Fiirst, Bih.Jud. i,159. Aaron ben-Joseph Sason (Schascon), a rab- bi of Tbessalonica, lived at the close of the 16th cen- tury. He is the author of several celebrated Jewish works, among which are FiESt T'nip (the law of truth), a collection of 232 decisions on questions re- lating to sales, rents, etc. (Venice, 1616. fol.) ; and P"3X ~15S (the book of truth), explicatory of the Tosaphoth of the Gemara (Amsterd. 1706, 8vo). — Hoefer, Biographie Generate, i, 7.
Aaron Zalaha, a Spanish rabbi, died 1293. He is the author of a commentary published under the title Sepher Hachinak, id est Liber Institutionis, recensio 613 legis Mosaicai prweeptorum, etc. (in Hebrew, Ven- ice, 1523, fol.) — Hoefer, Biographie Generate, i, 7.
A'aronite (Heb. same as Aaron, used collective- ly), a designation of the descendants of Aaron, and therefore priests, who, to the number of 3700 fighting men, with Jehoiada the father of Bonaiah at their head, joined David at Hebron (1 Chron. xii, 27). Later on in the history (1 Chron. xxvii, 17) we find their chief was Zadok, who in the earlier narrative is distinguished as "a young man mighty of valour." They must have been an important family in the reign of David to be reckoned among the tribes of Israel. — Smith, s. v. See Aaron ; Priest.
Aazrak (~plXX), a Cabalistic word found in the Talmudic Lexicon Aruch, and apparently invented by the Rabbins in order to correspond to a prohibition found in the Mishna {Shabbath, xii, 3) that no person should write on the Sabbath two letters, this word be- ginning with the letter X repeated. In the Talmud, however, it is written Aadrah (~T1XN). Buxtorf {Lex. Talmud, col. 2) thinks it is merely the Biblical word ""^XX, aiizzerlm', I loill gird thee (Auth. Vers. " I girded thee"), found in Isa. xlv, 5.
Ab (-N, prob. i. q. "the season of fruit," from 22X, to ha fruitful, and apparently of Syriac origin, D'Herbelot, Bill. Orient, s. v. • romp. Abib ; Jose- phus, 'A[3[i(i, Ant. iv, 4, 7), the Chaldee name of the fifth ecclesiastical and eleventh civil month of the Jewish year (liuxtorf, Lex. Tahn. col. 2); a name introduced after the Babylonian captivity, and riot occurring in Scripture, in which this is designated simply as the fifth month (Num. xxxiii, 38; Jer. i, 3; Zech. vii, 3, etc.). It corresponded with the Macedo- nian month Lous (A woe), beginning with the new moon of August, and alwa3'S containing thirty days. The 1st day is memorable for the death of Aaron (Num. xxxiii, 38); the 9th is the date (Moses Cozenzis, in Wagenseil's Sota, p. 736) of the exclusion from ( !anaan (Num. xiv, 30), and the destruction of the Temple by Nebuchadnezzar (Zech. vii, 5 ; viii, 19 ; comp. Reland, Antiq. Sacr. iv, 10; but the 7th day, according to 2 Kings xxv, 8, where the Syriac and Arabic read 9th ;