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Supplementary notes
The Editors

Certain terms used in the articles of this issue have come to indicate more or less different phenomena in different periods and milieux, just as the groups and movements referred to have undergone a whole historical development. The following notes are appended in the form of an extended glossary to offer a ready source of basic information but also to encourage further study and investigation by the reader. The material is taken almost entirely from articles in the Encyclopaedia Judaica (Keter Publishing House, Jerusalem, 1971) where much more extended treatment of the subjects will be found.

Amoraim

This Aramaic term designates scholars from the Lime of the completion of the Mishnah (200 CEA until the completion of the Talmuds (the Babylonian at the end of the fourth century, the Jerusalem at the end of the fifth). Most of the Talmuds and the Midrashim is made up of their discussions. The name amoraim comes from the amora's work of explaining. or & interpreting - the Mishnah and deriving from it the final hatahhah.

HASIDIM

The definitions given for a hasid vary according to different times and places. In rabbinic literature, hasidim pietists -) were those who lived according to a very high standard of moral behavior and observance of the commandments. Though the exact period of the hasidim ha-rishonim l& first hasidim. is not known, they were noted for their fidelity to the mitzvot, their concern for human relations, and a fear of sin which led them to desire constant purification. The & hasidim and men of action. mentioned in the Talmud (Sukkah 5. 4) were known for their good deeds and miracles in the Second Temple period. Later, the term hasid came to mean one who strove to live according to a very high ideal in some particular area of life (e.g. the hasid says: < What is mine is yours and what is yours is yours. (Avot V. 10) I. In the amoraic period (c. 200 - 500 GE.) asceticism became an important characteristic of the hasid, following an interpretation of Rabbi Akiva's principle that a man should accept suffering lovingly as the highest goal for anyone wanting to serve God. The early hasidim were individuals, not organized into a group or sect. It was in the eighteenth century that the popular religious movement began which today is know as Hasidism. characterized by ecstasy, mass enthusiasm, and charismatic leadership. The term hasidim has thus come to mean those who follow and admire a hasid; one who lives up to the hasidic ideal is now called a tsaddik (see Gershon Scholem's article Three Types of Jewish Piety ., SIDIC Vol. VIII No. 1 (1975), pages 4-13, where this evolution of terminology is dealt with).

PHARISEES

The Pharisees were a political and religious party (sect) of the Second Temple period which emerged as a distinct group shortly after the Hasmonean revolt (165-160 B.C.E.). The term • Pharisee is generally believed to originate from the Hebrew word ). to be separated - and would therefore mean the separated ones Some believe it indicates those who avoided contact with others for reasons of ritual purity.

The Pharisees considered themselves disciples of Ezra whom they revered, after Moses, as the founder of Judaism. They upheld the equal validity of the Oral Law and the Written Law (Torah), and tried to adapt the ancient codes of the law to new conditions of life. They believed in a combination of free will and predestination, in a resurrection from the dead, and in a future life where this life would be rewarded. At first few in number, by the first century of this era they had come to represent the beliefs, religious practices and attitudes of the majority of Jews. They tried to imbue the masses with a spirit of holiness based on strict observance of the Torah, by faithfully handing on the traditions of Israel. For the Pharisees, religious values were more important than political ideals, so that —unlike the Zealots — they preferred to submit to foreign domination which would respect their way of life than to a national government which was considered impious.

The Pharisees attempted to seize power for the first time about 200 years after the Babylonian exile by a struggle for control over the Temple and the religious life of the country, which until then was in the hands of the Sadducees. The custom of celebrating the liturgy in the synagogue probably dates from this period, and in all likelihood springs from the attempt of the Pharisees to undermine the privileged authority of the Sadducees. A number of ceremonies originally celebrated in the Temple were transferred to the synagogues and private homes, and learned men not of the priestly families began to play an important role in religious and national affairs. While the priestly class attended to the Temple ritual, the Pharisees' main function was teaching and preaching the law of God.

Conflict arose between the lay and priestly factions in the Sanhedrin (the highest council and tribunal) each time there was a question of interpreting the Torah in regard to problems of daily life. This gave the Pharisees the opportunity of incorporating popular traditions into the religious life of the Jewish people and the Temple ritual. In time, the rivalry between Pharisees and Sadducees degenerated into a serious opposition, their theological differences mingled with politics. At the time of John Hircanus the Pharisees were expelled from the Sanhedrin and called Perushtm, • the separated ones .. They adopted this name but used it in its alternate sense of • the exponents • of the law. By the period of the Hasmonean revolt it was evident that the theological doctrines of the Pharisees sustained the hope of the oppressed masses and influenced the entire life of the Jews. Important centers of learning were later established by men such as Shammai, Hillel, Ishmael and Akiva.

The period of pharisaic activity lasted into the second century of our era and profoundly influenced the Orthodox Judaism which subsequently developed. After the destruction of the Temple in 70 CR., the Pharisees concentrated their efforts on education, and it was the synagogues and pharisaic schools which took up the task of promoting Judaism.

RABBI

• Rabbi • comes from the word ray which in biblical Hebrew signifies • great The title is not found in the Hebrew Bible. In the Hebrew of the Mishnah, ray means a master as opposed to a slave (-does a stave rebel against his ray • [Her. Wall. The New Testament passage (Mt. 23:7) in which the scribes and Pharisees are criticized for wanting to be called • Rabbi • probably testifies to the recent introduction of the term into current vocabulary. The word • rabbi • means literally • my master • but in the tannaitic period, after Hillel, it was transformed simply into the title given to a sage. Because it was given only to those who had been ordained, and since in talmudic times ordinations were not given outside the Land of Israel, it could not be borne by the Babylonian sages (amoraitn), who adopted the name ray. Therefore, in the Talmud, the title of • Rabbi • refers either to one of the tannaim or to a Palestinian amora, while the word ray refers to a Babylonian amora. The rabbi of the Talmud was before all else a commentator on the Written and Oral Law, and almost invariably he carried on a trade to earn his living. In the Middle Ages, the rabbi became a teacher, preacher and spiritual head of the Jewish community. In modern times, the function of the rabbi has changed greatly with changing needs and conditions in different countries, and he is often expected to give much time to pastoral work and to social and educational activities of his congregation.

SADOUCEES

The Sadducees were a sect made up mainly of the wealthier men among the population, in the latter part of the Second Temple period (200 B.C.E. till 70 C.E.). Priestly and aristocratic, the party was in control of the Temple worship, and many Sadducees were members of the Sanhedrin. Theirname is probably derived from Zadok, high priest at the time of David and Solomon. Descendants of this family formed the hierarchy of the Temple until the second century B.C.E. A conservative group, the Sadducees held to ancient doctrine and the sacrificial cult. Both Sadducees and Pharisees accepted the supremacy of the Torah, but the Sadducees refused to give the Oral Law equal validity with the Written Law, and considered no precept as binding unless it was based directly on the Torah. They denied those pharisaic doctrines which they said had no basis in the Mosaic Law (the resurrection of the body, the immortality of the soul, existence of angels). The Sadducees, historically influenced by Hellenism. came to be in good standing with the Roman rulers and unpopular with the ordinary people. With the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E. they ceased to exist.

SAGES

The sages were not a sect or a party. The term is used to indicate those who moulded the life of the Jewish people and influenced its understanding of the past, its hopes and future orientations throughout the centuries from Second Temple times until the Arabic conquest (7c. C.E.). This period embraces the Hasmonean rule, Roman domination, the Jewish revolt (66-70/73 C.E.), the destruction of the Second Temple, the leadership of the nesi'im in the Land of Israel, and the appearance of a strong Diaspora in the Greco-Roman world and in Babylon. The term - sages • covers several categories: members of the Great Synagogue, the scribes [soferim), the members of the Sanhedrin, the heads of the academies inesi'irni. the Pharisees. hasidim. mystics and haverint. • The sages • is more appropriate than any one of these terms to designate the spiritual and religious leaders of this period of Jewish history.

SCRIBES

The biblical word soferim, translated • scribes ., during the Second Temple period came to refer to a special class of scholars, but the exact nature of the group is disputed. Some consider that an era of the soferim began in the time of Ezra, and that these scribes laid the foundations of the Oral Law, explaining the Torah to the people (Neh. 8:8). In the Apocrypha and the New Testament, scribes are equivalent to sages and elders, sometimes men who held office in the Temple or courts. In talmudic writings and later, the word • scribe • is a general term for Torah scholars and copyists of different epochs and categories.

TANNAIM

The word tanna (from the Aramaic • to hand down orally • study - teach .) refers in general to a teacher mentioned in the Mishnah or from the mishnaic period. It is used in the Talmud to distinguish these teachers from the later scholars, the amoraim. The tannaitic period covers roughly the years 20 to 200 C.E. (date given for the final redaction of the Mishnah by Judah ha-Nasi). The tannaim were both scholars and teachers, expounding the law, teaching in the synagogues and academies, and encouraging the people.