And the Mishnah also used the term in reference to man, saying, for example, "There are four different sorts (, middot) among those who go to the house of learning," and, "There are four different traits (, middot) among those who give charity."Mishnah Avot 5:13–14. In, e.g.
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Maimonides equated these with what the Sages called "Attributes" (, middot), noting that the Talmud spoke of the 13 "Attributes" (, middot) of God.Babylonian Talmud Rosh Hashanah 17b. In, e.g., Talmud Bavli. Elucidated by Abba Zvi Naiman, Israel Schneider, Moshe Zev Einhorn, and Eliezer Harzka; edited by Yisroel Simcha Schorr and Chaim Malinowitz, page 17b1.
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There is a Tosefta for the tractates Zevahim, Hullin, Bekhorot, Arakhin, Temurah, Me'ilah, and Keritot. Tamid, Middot and Kinnim have no Tosefta.
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In the Babylonian Talmud the sequence of the treatises follows the general order except that Bekorot is before Hullin, and Ḳinnim is placed before Tamid and Middot.
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In addition, the order contains a description of the Second Temple (tractate Middot), and a description and rules about the daily sacrifice service in the Temple (tractate Tamid).
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Among his major works is his annotated translation of Maimonides' Code "Sanctification of the New Moon" included in the Yale Judaica Series as well as his edition of Mishnat ha-Middot.
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But Steinschneider's assumption can hardly be supported. Mishnat ha-Middot has nothing in common with the Baraita cited by the old scholars under that name: for the citations leave no doubt that the Baraita, even in its mathematical parts, was founded on the Bible; whereas the Mishnat ha-Middot is a purely secular work, and, possibly, it drew upon the same source as did Mohammed b. Musa, the oldest Arabic mathematician. The argument that the Mishnat ha-Middot has not been preserved in its entirety, and that in its original form there were references to the Bible for special points, is of no weight, since it is absolutely incomprehensible that aggadic or halakhic matter should fit into the frame of the work as it now is.
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Model of the Second Temple showing the courtyards and the Sanctuary, as described in Middot. Tractate Middot (, lit. "Measurements") is the tenth tractate of Seder Kodashim ("Order of Holies") of the Mishnah and of the Talmud. This tractate describes the dimensions and the arrangement of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and the Second Temple buildings and courtyards, various gates, the altar of sacrifice and its surroundings, and the places where the Priests and Levites kept watch in the Temple.
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The Mishnat ha-Middot (, 'Treatise of Measures') is the earliest known Hebrew treatise on geometry, composed of 49 mishnayot in six chapters. Scholars have dated the work to either the Mishnaic period or the early Islamic era.
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The so-called punt volat or middot is only used in the group (called ela or el(e) geminada, 'geminate el') to represent a geminated sound , as is used to represent the palatal lateral . This usage of the middot sign is a recent invention from the beginning of twentieth century (in medieval and modern Catalan, before Fabra's standardization, this symbol was sometimes used to note certain elisions, especially in poetry). The only (and improbable) case of ambiguity in the whole language that could arise is the pair ceŀla ('cell') vs cella ('eyebrow').
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R' Yehudah Ibn Tibbon, in a letter to R' Asher, praised his fondness for science, and in his testament exhorted his son to cultivate R' Asher's friendship. R' Asher's alleged leaning towards kabbalah, mentioned by Heinrich Graetz, is unproven. The fact that he was responsible for the translation of Solomon ibn Gabirol's Tikkun Middot haNefesh is no proof for or against his kabbalistic leanings; the kabbalists had a strong leaning toward ibn Gabirol's mysticism; and, after all, Tikkun Middot haNefesh is moral in its tendencies, rather than strictly philosophical.
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According to Akiva, the divine language of the Torah is distinguished from the speech of men by the fact that in the former no word or sound is superfluous. Some scholars have observed a similarity between these rabbinic rules of interpretation and the hermeneutics of ancient Hellenistic culture. For example, Saul Lieberman argues that the names of rabbi Ishmael's middot (e. g., kal vahomer, a combination of the archaic form of the word for "straw" and the word for "clay" – "straw and clay", referring to the obvious [means of making a mud brick]) are Hebrew translations of Greek terms, although the methods of those middot are not Greek in origin.
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Oxford English Dictionary, 1st ed. "colon, n.²" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1891. In the punctuation system devised by Aristophanes of Byzantium in the 3rd century BC, the end of such a clause was thought to occasion a medium-length breath and was marked by a middot .
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Tractate Middot provides a description of the Temple as reconstructed by Herod in the late 1st century BCE and is based on the memory of sages who saw the Temple and gave an oral description of it to their disciples, after its destruction in 70 CE during the First Jewish–Roman War. One of the main sages reporting the details of the Temple in this tractate is Rabbi Eliezer ben Jacob, a Tanna who lived during the 1st century CE. He is thought to have seen the Temple while it was still standing, and he may also have learned about its inner arrangements from his uncle who served in it. according to Middot 1:2 The final redaction of the tractate by Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi (135 – 217 CE) contains various traditions of other authorities and which are also cited in the Babylonian Talmud tractate Yoma (16a-17a) and the Jerusalem Talmud Yoma (2: 3, 39). Middot, like tractate Tamid, differs from most of the other tractates of the Mishna in that it is primarily a descriptive, rather than a halachic (legal) text.
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The Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael ( IPA /məˈχilθɑ/, "a collection of rules of interpretation") is midrash halakha to the Book of Exodus. The Jewish Babylonian Aramaic title Mekhilta corresponds to the Mishnaic Hebrew term middah "measure," "rule", and is used to denote a compilation of exegesis ( middot; compare talmudical hermeneutics).
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Although primarily a practical work, the Mishnat ha-Middot attempts to define terms and explain both geometric application and theory. The book begins with a discussion that defines "aspects" for the different kinds of plane figures (quadrilateral, triangle, circle, and segment of a circle) in Chapter I (§1–5), and with the basic principles of measurement of areas (§6–9). In Chapter II, the work introduces concise rules for the measurement of plane figures (§1–4), as well as a few problems in the calculation of volume (§5–12). In Chapters III–V, the Mishnat ha-Middot explains again in detail the measurement of the four types of plane figures, with reference to numerical examples.
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Several of the Native American languages of North America use the colon to indicate vowel length. Zuni is one. Other languages include Hupa of California, Oʼodham of Arizona, Sayula Popoluca of Mexico and Mohawk of Ontario. Still others use a half colon (just the top dot of the colon, or a middot, ).
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After the discovery by Otto Neugebauer of a genizah-fragment in the Bodleian Library containing Chapter VI, Solomon Gandz published a complete version of the Mishnat ha-Middot in 1932, accompanied by a thorough philological analysis. A third manuscript of the work was found among uncatalogued material in the Archives of the Jewish Museum of Prague in 1965.
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Nathan was a high Talmudic authority. Numerous halakhic decisions and aggadic sayings of his are recorded. To him is attributed the authorship of Avot de-Rabbi Natan, a kind of tosefta to the Pirkei Avot. He is said also to have been the author of the baraita Mem Tet Middot, no longer extant, on Haggadah and mathematics.
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A middot may be used as a consonant or modifier letter, rather than as punctuation, in transcription systems and in language orthographies. For such uses Unicode provides the code point .Some discussion of the inappropriateness of a punctuation mark for such use, as well as the near equivalence of the triangular half colon, can be found here: Bibiko, Hans-Jörg (2010-04-07), On the proposed U+A78F LATIN LETTER MIDDLE DOT Hill, Nathan (2010-04-14), Latin letter middle dot In the Sinological tradition of the 36 initials, the onset 影 (typically reconstructed as a glottal stop) may be transliterated with a middot , and the onset 喩 (typically reconstructed as a null onset) with an apostrophe . Conventions vary, however, and it is common for 影 to be transliterated with the apostrophe.
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There are two references to the Songs of Ascents in the Mishnah, noting the correspondence between the fifteen songs and the temple's fifteen steps between the Israelite's court and the women's court.Sukkah 5:4; Middot 2:5 Rashi refers to a Talmudic legend that King David composed or sang the fifteen songs to calm rising waters at the foundation of the temple.
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Model of the Temple Mount and the Second Temple, late 1st century BCE or early 1st century CE, reflecting descriptions in tractate Middot. The tractate consists of five chapters and thirty-four sections (mishnayot). It has no Gemara – rabbinical analysis and commentary on the Mishnah – in either the Jerusalem Talmud or Babylonian Talmud. There is also no Tosefta for this tractate.
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They were not immediately recognized by all as valid and binding. Different schools interpreted and modified them, restricting or expanding them, in various ways. The Talmud itself gives no information concerning the origin of the middot, although the Geonim regarded them as Sinaitic (הלכה למשה מסיני, "Law given to Moses at Mount Sinai"; comp. Rabbi Samson of Chinon in his Sefer HaKeritot).
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49 [ed. Friedmann, p. 85]) In the Sifre, however, these attributes are not called "middot", which may mean "quality" as well as "rule" and "measure", but "derakhim" (ways), since they are the ways of God which Moses prayed to know and which God proclaimed to him. The thirteen attributes are alluded to a number of other times in the Bible.
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Seder Kodashim, the fifth order, or division, of the Mishnah (compiled between 200–220 CE), provides detailed descriptions and discussions of the religious laws connected with Temple service including the sacrifices, the Temple and its furnishings, as well as the priests who carried out the duties and ceremonies of its service. Tractates of the order deal with the sacrifices of animals, birds, and meal offerings, the laws of bringing a sacrifice, such as the sin offering and the guilt offering, and the laws of misappropriation of sacred property. In addition, the order contains a description of the Second Temple (tractate Middot), and a description and rules about the daily sacrifice service in the Temple (tractate Tamid). In the Babylonian Talmud, all the tractates have Gemara – rabbinical commentary and analysis – for all their chapters; some chapters of Tamid, and none on Middot and Kinnim.
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Babylonian Talmud (Ta'anit 23a). Josephus, The Jewish War (1.21.1). Herod the Great rebuilt the Temple sanctuary and expanded the Temple Mount at its north side around the older Temple courts, and "enclosed an area double the former size." Formerly, according to the Mishnah (Middot 2:1), the Temple Mount had measured 500 cubits x 500 cubits square, and its expansion was done to accommodate the pilgrims.
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It must be borne in mind, however, that neither Hillel, Ishmael, nor Eliezer ben Jose sought to give a complete enumeration of the rules of interpretation current in his day. For some reason they restricted themselves to a compilation of the principal methods of logical deduction, which they called "middot" (measures), although the other rules also were known by that term.Compare Sifre, Num. 2 [ed.
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Steinschneider believed that he had put an end to all conjecture concerning the Baraita through a happy find. In the introduction to an edition of Mishnat ha- Middot,Mishnat ha-Middot, die Erste Geometrische Schrift in Hebräischer Sprache (Berlin, 1864) he maintains that this mathematical work, edited by him, is identical with the Baraita under consideration. Were this the case, the Baraita would be a product of the 9th or, at earliest the 8th century, and its birthplace would have to be Babylonia. For, although the scientific terminology of this, the oldest, mathematical work of the Jews shows its origin to have been in a time previous to Arabic influences on Jewish scholarship, yet expressions like חץ = Arabic סהם ("arrow") for sinus versus, or משיחה = Arabic מסאחה for measure, area, show that the work could not have been written before the contact of the Jews with the Arabs.
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These conventions are used both for Chinese itself and for other scripts of China, such as ʼPhags-pa and Jurchen. In Americanist phonetic notation, the middot is a more common variant of the colon used to indicate vowel length. It may be called a half-colon in such usage. Graphically, it may be high in the letter space (the top dot of the colon) or centered as the interpunct.
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From Americanist notation, it has been adopted into the orthographies of several languages, such as Washo. In the writings of Franz Boas, the middot was used for palatal or palatalized consonants, e.g. for IPA [c]. In the Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics, a middle dot ⟨ᐧ⟩ indicates a syllable medial ⟨w⟩ in Cree and Ojibwe, ⟨y⟩ or ⟨yu⟩ in some of the Athapascan languages, and a syllable medial ⟨s⟩ in Blackfoot.
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Pesiḳta Rabbah 26 [ed. Friedmann, p. 129] Huldah was not only a prophetess, but taught publicly in the school,Targum to according to some teaching especially the oral doctrine. It is doubtful whether "the Gate of Huldah" in the Second Temple (Middot 1:3) has any connection with the prophetess Huldah; it may have meant "Cat's Gate"; some scholars, however, associate the gate with Huldah's schoolhouse (Rashi to Kings l.c.).
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Elijah ben Moses Gershon Ẓahalon of Pinczow was an eighteenth-century Jewish Talmudist, mathematician and physician living in Pińczów, Russian Poland. In 1758 he published Ma'aneh Eliyahu, novellae on Baba Meẓi'a and Beẓah, decisions, and responsa. That same year he published Ir Ḥeshbon, on arithmetic and algebra, the first part of his most notable mathematical work, Meleket Maḥshebet. The second part, Berure Middot, on geometry, would be published in 1765.
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He is attributed as the author of the Mishnat ha-Middot (ca. AD 150), making it the earliest known Hebrew text on geometry, although some historians assign the text to a later period by an unknown author. The Mishnat ha-Middot argues against the common belief that the Bible defines the geometric ratio (pi) as being exactly equal to 3, based on the description in 1 Kings 7:23 (and 2 Chronicles 4:2) of the great bowl situated outside the Temple of Jerusalem as having a diameter of 10 cubits and a circumference of 30 cubits. He maintained that the diameter of the bowl was measured from the outside brim, while the circumference was measured along the inner brim, which with a brim that is one handbreadth wide (as described in the subsequent verses 1 Kings 7:24 and 2 Chronicles 4:3) yields a ratio from the circular rim closer to the actual value of .
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The principal difference is the Greek question mark , which developed a shape so similar to the Latinate semicolon that Unicode decomposes its separate code point identically. The middot serves as the Greek semicolon but is so uncommon that it has often been left off of Greek keyboards. The exclamation mark ( Thavmastiko) is mostly used as in English. The hyphen, the brackets, the colon, the ellipsis and the slash are also in use.
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His enemies, however, were finally pacified through the energetic intervention of the Italian rabbis, as well as by Wessely's pamphlets Meḳor Ḥen, in which he gave evidence of his sincere piety. In 1788 Wessely published in Berlin his ethical treatise Sefer ha-Middot (The Book of Virtues), a work of Musar literature. He also published several odes; elegies, and other poems; but his masterwork is his Shire Tif'eret (5 vols.; i.-iv.
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The Mishnat ha-Middot was discovered in MS 36 of the Munich Library by Moritz Steinschneider in 1862. The manuscript, copied in Constantinople in 1480, goes as far as the end of Chapter V. According to the colophon, the copyist believed the text to be complete. Steinschneider published the work in 1864, in honour of the seventieth birthday of Leopold Zunz. The text was edited and published again by mathematician Hermann Schapira in 1880.
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The Maalot HaMiddot (), written during the 13th century while its author was in Rome, Italy, was originally published in Constantinople as "Beit Middot" in 1511/15125271 Anno Mundi 1512 vs 1511: both match parts of AM 5721. ; what is now MaaLot HaMiDot was published 1556 in Cremona. This musar sefer begins and ends with a poetic work, and describes 24 character trait elevations in ethical conduct. It is based on talmudic, midrashic and other sources.
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Et. Juives, xxii.214 is part of a religio-astrological commentary on the Book of Genesis 1:26 (written in 982), which probably formed a sort of introduction to the Ḥakhmoni, in which the idea that man is a microcosm is worked out. Parts of this introduction are found word for word in the anonymous Orchot Tzaddikim (or Sefer Middot) and the Sheveṭ Musar of Elijah ben Solomon Abraham ha-Kohen. It was published separately by Adolf Jellinek.
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The sources embrace not only the major portion of halakhic and aggadic literature during the ancient and geonic epochs, but also the aggadic literature as late as the 12th century. The author made use of the older midrashic works, such as Seder 'Olam, Sifra, Sifre, Sifre Zuṭa, Mekilta, the Baraita on the Thirty-two Middot, the Baraita on the Forty-nine Middot, and the Baraita on the Erection of the Tabernacle ("Meleket ha-Mishkan"), and he availed himself also of the Mishnah, both Talmudim, and Semaḥot, Kallah, and Soferim. He drew from the ethical and historical aggadah, such as Abot de-Rabbi Natan, Tanna debe Eliyahu (Rabbah and Zuṭa), Derek Ereẓ, Masseket Gan Eden, Midrash Wayissa'u, the Chronicle of Moses, and the Midrash on the Death of Moses. The author's chief source, however, was the explanatory midrashim, such as the midrash rabbot on Pentateuch (with the exception of Exodus Rabbah), Pesiḳta, Pesiḳta Rabbati, Yelammedenu, Tanḥuma, Debarim Zuṭa, Midrash Abba Gorion, Esfa, Tadshe, Abkir, Pirḳe Rabbi Eli'ezer, and the midrashim on Samuel, Psalms, Proverbs, and Job.
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Josephus, Antiquities 15.424 According to the Mishnah, there was formerly a causeway which led out of the Temple Mount eastward over the Kidron Valley, extending as far as the Mount of Olives.Mishnah (Parah 3:6; Middot 1:3) Rabbi Eliezer, dissenting, says that it was not a causeway, but rather marble pillars over which cedar boards had been laid, used by the High Priest and his entourage.Tosefta Parah 3:7 This gate was not used by the masses to enter the Temple Mount, but reserved only for the High Priest and all those that aided him when taking out the Red Heifer or the scapegoat on the Day of Atonement. Dutch archaeologist Leen Ritmeyer, who explored the gate in the 1970s, reached the conclusion that the two monolithic massive gateposts seen on the inside of the gate belong to an old structure of the gate, thought to be the Shushan Gate (mentioned in Mishnah Middot 1:3 as being the only gate in the Eastern Wall), and that it dates from the First Temple period.
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The same reason demolishes the hypothesis of the German translator of the Mishnat ha-Middot,Abhandlung zur Geschichte d. Mathematik, in Supplement to Zeitschrift für Mathematik und Physik, 1880; H. Schapira, Mishnat ha-Midoth . . . ins Deutsche Uebersetzt who assumes that there was a Mishnah with the Gemara on it, and that citations of the old scholars refer to the Gemara, whereas the printed text represents the Mishnah (compare the tanna R. Nathan, and Baraita on the Erection of the Tabernacle).
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See Heinrich Graetz #The Kompert Affair. In the same year Weiss edited the mishnayot of the treatise Berakhot, giving a list of variants in both Talmudim and a brief synopsis of the contents. A year later (1865) he founded a monthly magazine, Bet ha-Midrash, of which, however, only five numbers appeared. In the same year he edited the Mekilta, to which he added an introduction dealing with the historical development of both Halakha and Aggada, and a critical commentary entitled Middot Soferim.
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The Thirteen Attributes of Mercy or Shelosh-'Esreh Middot HaRakhamim (transliterated from the Hebrew: ) as enumerated in the Book of Exodus () are the Divine Attributes with which, according to Judaism, God governs the world. According to the explanation of Maimonides these attributes must not be regarded as qualities inherent in God, but as the method of His activity, by which the divine governance appears to the human observer to be controlled.Moreh Nebukim, i. 54, which is confirmed by the Sifre (Deut.
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Although only asked about the first commandment, Jesus included the second commandment in his answer. This double reference has given rise to differing views with regard to the relationship that exists between the two commandments, although typically "love thy God" is referred to as "the first and greatest commandment", with "love thy neighbour" being referred to as "the second great commandment". It may simply reflect the "seven rules (Middot) of Hillel", in this case the first one, called Ḳal wa-ḥomer (Hebrew: קל וחומר).
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The concept of the "Temple Mount" gained prominence in the first century CE, after the destruction of the Second Temple. Although the term "Temple Mount" was first used in the Book of Micah (4:1) – literally as "Mount of the House" – it was not used again until approximately one thousand years later. The term was not used in the New Testament. The term was used next in the Talmud's Tractate Middot (1:1–3, 2:1–2), in which the area was described in detail.
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Seemingly, the expression was first used in the Baraita on the Thirty-two Rules, which is traditionally attributed to Eliezer ben Jose (a 2nd-century tanna).Baraita on the Thirty-two Rules, rules 31 and 32. This work is printed after Kitzur Klalei HaTalmud at the end of Tractate Berachot in the Vilna Shas. However, according to modern scholar Moshe Zucker, this work was in fact only written in the 10th century.Moshe Zucker, "LePitaron Baayat 32 Middot uMishnat R' Eliezer", PAAJR 23 (1954), p.
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Middot Aharon (Aaron's Rules) is Aharon ibn Hayyim's most well-known publication, and serves as one of the only compositions that adequately discusses the thirteen hermeneutic principles as laid out by R. Ishmael. This work focuses on the development and application of the thirteen hermeneutical principles, and was largely responsible for the Sifra becoming a subject of study. Ibn Hayyim's main objective is to search for and explain the plain meaning of the text, and seeks to interpret the literal meaning, despite his often-wordy explanations.
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One form of literature in the Hasidic movement were tracts collecting and instructing mystical-ethical practices. These include Tzavaat HaRivash ("Testament of Rabbi Yisroel Baal Shem") and Tzetl Koton by Elimelech of Lizhensk, a seventeen-point program on how to be a good Jew. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov's Sefer ha-Middot is a Hasidic classic of Musar literature. The "Musar letter" of the Vilna Gaon, an ethical will by an opponent of the Hasidic movement, is regarded by some as a classic of Musar literature.
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He was a close student of Rabbi Noah Weinberg, served as his ghostwriter for 20 years, and co-authored the best- selling 48 Ways to Wisdom. He is often quoted as a rabbinical authority in print and online media. He is author of: LifeWisdom Series; the Discovery Seminar sourcebook; "Ask the Rabbi" series featured on various websites; courses on Brachot, Middot, Jewish History; "Shraga's Weekly" on Chumash; reporting for Ami magazine and Mishpacha magazine; and hundreds of essays on spirituality, translated into 10 languages.
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Rabbi (Judah the Patriarch) said that they cleaned them with a cloth every Friday because of blood stains. They did not apply the whitewash with an iron trowel, out of the concern that the iron trowel would touch the stones and render them unfit, for iron was created to shorten humanity's days, and the altar was created to extend humanity's days, and it is not proper that that which shortens humanity's days be placed on that which extends humanity's days.Mishnah Middot 3:4, in, e.g., Jacob Neusner, translator, Mishnah, pages 878–79.
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Ancient Greek was written as without spacing or interpuncts. Over time, a variety of symbols appeared. A system of dots credited to Aristophanes of Byzantium was developed in the 3rd century BC: a low dot marked an occasion for a short breath after a short phrase, a middot marked an occasion for a longer breath after a longer passage, and a high dot marked a full stop at the end of a completed thought. Other writers employed two dot punctuation to mark the ends of sentences or changing speakers.
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The halakhic exegesis of the Mekhilta, which is found chiefly in the massektot "Bo", "Bahodesh", and "Mishpatim" and in the sections "Ki Tisa" and "Vayakhel", is, as the name "mekhilta" indicates, based on the application of the middot according to R. Ishmael's system and method of teaching. In like manner, the introductory formulas and the technical terms are borrowed from his midrash.Compare D. Hoffmann l.c. pp. 43–44 On the other hand, there are many explanations and expositions of the Law which follow the simpler methods of exegesis found in the earlier halakha.
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The Southern Wall is in length, and which the historian Josephus equates as being equal to the length of one furlong (Greek: stadion).Josephus, Antiquities (15.11.3; XV.415–416), who described the dimensions of the Temple Mount in the following terms (apparently not including the extension made to the Temple Mount): “This hill was walled all round, and in compass four furlongs; [the distance of] each angle containing in length a furlong (Gr. stadion).” Compare Mishnah Middot 2:1 which states that the Temple Mount measured five-hundred cubits (Heb.
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Book- Tree of life, Medieval Tomer Devorah (Hebrew: תומר דבורה, English: The Palm Tree of Deborah) was written in Hebrew in the middle of the 16th century by Moses Cordovero, a Jewish kabbalist in Safed, Israel. This short text deals mostly with the Imitation of God through the acquisition of divine traits, especially those of the sephirot. The first edition was published in Venice in 1588. Although not widely read among Jews today, it is popular in the mussar tradition, which focuses on the individual cultivation of the middot, or qualities of God.
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Bekhorot, Arakhin and Temurah all discuss auxiliary laws of sanctity and follow the order in which they appear in the Torah. Keritot then follows, as it largely discusses the offering for the transgression of certain commandments, and Me'ilah follows that as it also deals with transgressions of sanctity, although of a lighter nature. After dealing with laws, two mostly descriptive tractates were added, Tamid discussing the daily sacrifice and Middot which overviews the Temple in Jerusalem. Finally, Kinnim was placed last as its laws deal with accidental and rarely occurring situations.
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An interpunct, , also known as an interpoint, middle dot, middot and centered dot or centred dot, is a punctuation mark consisting of a vertically centered dot used for interword separation in ancient Latin script. (Word-separating spaces did not appear until some time between 600 and 800CE). It appears in a variety of uses in some modern languages and is present in Unicode as code point . The multiplication dot (also known as the dot operator; ), which is frequently used in mathematical and scientific notation, has an appearance similar to the interpunct, but its exact shape and spacing may differ.
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In 1880, with Lazarus Fuchs as thesis advisor, he earned his doctorate with the dissertation Lineare homogene Cofunktionen.G. Kern: Die Entwicklung des Faches an der Universität Heidelberg, Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg In 1883 he established himself as privat- docent in mathematics at the University of Heidelberg, becoming assistant professor in 1887. His contributions to mathematics were published in various mathematical journals. Schapira remained a lifelong student of Hebrew literature, which he enriched by an edition, from a Munich manuscript, of the Mishnat ha-Middot (1880), and by his contributions to the Hebrew periodicals Ha-Meliẓ, Ha-Ẓefirah, and Mi-Mizraḥ umi-Ma'arab.
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Personification of virtue - one aspect of Derech Eretz. In the Talmud and Midrash, there are approximately 200 teachings concerning Derech Eretz as decent, polite, respectful, thoughtful, and civilized behavior.. One representative teaching is that "Derech Eretz comes before Torah"Vayikra Rabbah 9:3 - דֶּרֶךְ אֶרֶץ קָדְמָה לַתּוֹרָה – one cannot personify Torah until he demonstrates Derech Eretz in everything that he does. There are many more such teachings in the rishonim and acharonim (post-Talmudic authorities). The mussar literature, in fact, presents an entire body of thought devoted to the subject of middot (character traits) and "behaving like a mentsh" (refined human being, lit.
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Orchot Tzaddikim (Hebrew: ארחות צדיקים) is a book on Jewish ethics written in Germany in the 15th century, entitled Sefer ha-Middot by the author, but called Orḥot Ẓaddiḳim by a later copyist. Under this title a Yiddish translation, from which the last chapter and some other passages were omitted, was printed at Isny in 1542, although the Hebrew original did not appear until some years later (Prague, 1581). Subsequently, however, the book was frequently printed in both languages. The author of the work is unknown, although Güdemann (Gesch. iii. 223) advances the very plausible hypothesis that he was Lipmann Mühlhausen.
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The Leiden Talmud was written in 1289 by rabbi Jehiel ben rabbi Jekuthiel ben rabbi Benjamin HaRofe. Jehiel lived in Rome during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries where he was a famous scholar, writer, poet (of Piyyutim/liturgical poetry), and a copyist. He is best known as the author of the book of piety Maalot ha-Middot. Yehiel stated at the beginning of the (Leiden) manuscript that he finished writing Zeraim and Moed on the 12th day of the month of Shevat, and added that he completed Nashim and Nizikin one and a half months later.
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He refers to Nathan ben Jehiel, to Rashi, to Rabbi Isaac ben Melchizedek of Siponto,e.g. Mishnah Kelim 1:1, Ohalot 1:2, Parah 2:1 and other authorities, but never mentions Rambam's commentary, which he probably did not know. According to Jacob ben Aksai, Rabbi Samson also wrote commentaries on Shekalim, Eduyot, Middot, and Dinnim, but none are extant. He also wrote a commentary on the Sifra; for this, besides other older works, he utilized the commentary of Abraham ben David of Posquières (Rabad), which he quotes under the designation "Hachmei Lunel" or "Hachmei Provence", without mentioning the author's name.
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On Passover there is a shift from praying for rain to praying for dew and this coincides with the growth period for the fruit of the season. Shavuot is the day of the giving of the first fruits (bikkurim). The outcome of the season's crop and fruit was still vulnerable during this period. Over these seven weeks, daily reflection, work on improving one's personality characteristics (middot) and potential inner growth from this work on one self was one way to pray for and invite the possibility of affecting one's external fate and potential – the growth of the crop and the fruit of that season.
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The Mishna specifies that the stones of the altar had to be in their natural form and could not be shaped with an iron tool or changed in any way. The reason given (Middot 3:4) is that iron is used to make weapons which shorten human life, while the altar serves to prolong life by making amends for sin; it is therefore not appropriate to use this cause of harm in building the altar. Chapter 4 describes the Inner Sanctuary (Heichal) and the chambers surrounding it, along with its doors, chambers, steps. Chapter 5 provides further information regarding the Sanctuary and its chambers.
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He arranged that benches and tables be brought to the Wall on a daily basis for the study groups he organised and the minyan which he led there for years. He also formulated a plan whereby some of the courtyards facing the Wall would be acquired, with the intention of establishing three synagogues—one each for the Sephardim, the Hasidim and the Perushim. He also endeavoured to re-establish an ancient practice of "guards of honour", which according to the mishnah in Middot, were positioned around the Temple Mount. He rented a house near the Wall and paid men to stand guard there and at various other gateways around the mount.
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Jose's halakhot are also mentioned in Sifre, Numbers 8; Middot 2:6; and Sotah 20b. He transmitted an aggadah by Shmuel haKatan.Derekh Eretz Zuta 9 A teaching of Jose's, rebuking the priestly families that acted violently toward the people, transmitted by Abba Saul ben Batnit, reads as follows: "Woe unto me for the house of Boethus and their rods; woe unto me for the house of Hanin and their calumnious whispering; woe unto me for the house of Qatros and their pens; woe unto me for the house of Ishmael ben Phabi and their fists."Babylonian Talmud, Pesahim 57a, where he is called "Abba Joseph".
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This tractate describes the details and measurements of a hill in the city of Jerusalem known as the Temple Mount (Har Ha'bayit), and the Second Temple buildings, courtyards, gates and elements of the site as well as the places where the Kohanim (priests) and Levites kept watch in the Temple. stone warning inscription found on the Temple Mount accords with the description in Middot of the purpose of the fence (soreg) on the Mount. The tractate gives the measurements of the Temple Mount and its various divisions. It states that the Temple Courtyard on the mount measured 135 cubits (amot) from north to south and 187 cubits from east to west and was surrounded by walls.
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Four-pronged Shin embossed on a tefillin box Hebrew letters are invested with special meaning in Judaism in general, and in Kabbalah even more so. The creative power of letters is particularly evident in Sefer Yetzirah (Hebrew: book of creation), a mystical text that tells a story of the creation which is based on the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, a story which diverges greatly from that in the Book of Genesis. The creative power of letters is also explored in the Talmud and Zohar.Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Berachot 55cZohar 1:3; 2:152 In Kabbalah, every Shmita corresponds to individual emotional sephirot (the lower seven sephirot from Chessed to Malchut, named middot).
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They whitewashed the walls and top of the altar twice a year, on Passover and Sukkot, and they whitewashed the vestibule once a year, on Passover. Rabbi (Judah the Patriarch) said that they cleaned them with a cloth every Friday because of blood stains. They did not apply the whitewash with an iron trowel, out of the concern that the iron trowel would touch the stones and render them unfit, for iron was created to shorten humanity's days, and the altar was created to extend humanity's days, and it is not proper that that which shortens humanity's days be placed on that which extends humanity's days.Mishnah Middot 3:4, in, e.g., Jacob Neusner, translator, Mishnah, pages 878–79.
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In addition, the order contains a description of the Second Temple (tractate Middot), and a description and rules about the daily sacrifice service in the Temple (tractate Tamid). The order also includes tractate Hullin, which concerns the slaughter of animals for non-sacrificial use, as well as other dietary laws applying to meat and animal products. Although Hullin is about the slaughter of animals for non-sacrificial, and therefore unsanctified purposes, because the rules about the proper slaughter of animals and birds, and their ritual fitness for use were considered to be an integral part of the concept of holiness in Judaism, they were also included in the order regarding “holy things”.
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He soon resigned this post to open up his own yeshiva, in which he emphasized moral teachings based on the ethics taught in traditional Jewish rabbinic works, especially Musar literature. Salanter referred to his approach as the Musar approach, using the Hebrew word for ethical discipline or correction. In seeking to encourage the study of Musar literature, Salanter had three works of Musar literature republished in Vilna: Mesillat Yesharim by Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, Tikkun Middot ha-Nefesh by Solomon ibn Gabirol, and Cheshbon Ha-Nefesh by Menachem Mendel Lefin. He particularly concentrated on teaching Jewish business ethics, saying that just as one checks carefully to make sure his food is kosher, so too should one check to see if his money is earned in a kosher fashion.
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Gershom Gorenberg, The End of Days (Oxford: OUP, 2002), p. 78 He discovered archaeological evidence for the location of Solomon's Temple, the emplacement of the Ark of the Covenant on the Foundation Stone,'Architect Claims He Has Pieced Together Old Biblical Puzzle' in Los Angeles Times, Jan 6, 1996 and the location of the platform as extended in the First Temple period, probably during the time of Hezekiah described as a square of 500 cubits in Mishnah Middot 2.1. He has demonstrated that one of the steps leading to the Dome of the Rock is actually the top of a remaining stone course of the pre-Herodian Western Wall of the Temple Mount platform. Ritmeyer is known for his architectural models of the buildings of ancient Jerusalem.
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The school defines itself as a child-centered Orthodox Jewish day school, dedicated to educating Jewish children in Torah and general studies, developing love for Israel and the Jewish people, teaching critical thinking and reasoning, excelling in all the academic disciplines and instilling good character (middot) and values of caring for others (chesed). The school is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States (ISACS) and is associated with the Torah U’Mesorah (National Association of Hebrew Day Schools) network of schools and Yeshiva University’s Institute for University School Partnership. The school is overseen by an elected Board of Directors. The parent organization, Friends of the Hebrew Academy raises funds and holds educational and other events for the school.
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Moritz Steinschneider dated the Mishnat ha-Middot to between 800 and 1200 CE. Sarfatti and Langermann have advanced Steinschneider's claim of Arabic influence on the work's terminology, and date the text to the early ninth century. On the other hand, Hermann Schapira argued that the treatise dates from an earlier era, most likely the Mishnaic period, as its mathematical terminology differs from that of the Hebrew mathematicians of the Arab period. Solomon Gandz conjectured that the text was compiled no later than (possibly by Rabbi Nehemiah) and intended to be a part of the Mishnah, but was excluded from its final canonical edition because the work was regarded as too secular. The content resembles both the work of Hero of Alexandria (c.
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Indeed, as Hoffmann shows,l.c. p. 25 in the three passages in which it can with certainty be said that the reference is to R. Ḥiyya himself,Namely: Vayiḳra, Nedavah, 5:5, 6:3, and Metzora, 2:10 he refers to preceding interpretations, indicating that he is the editor. It is perhaps doubtful whether Hoffmann is correct in comparing the above-mentioned passages, or the final remark of R. Joshua in Ḳinnim, with Middot 2:5. But even if Hoffmann's view does not seem acceptable, it is not necessary to infer that Rav was the editor of the Sifra; for he may merely have added the passages in question, just as he seems to have made an addition to Sifra 12:2, following Niddah 24b.
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All the hermeneutic rules scattered through the Talmudim and Midrashim have been collected by Malbim in Ayyelet HaShachar, the introduction to his commentary on the Sifra, and have been reckoned at 613, to correspond with the 613 commandments. The antiquity of the rules can be determined only by the dates of the authorities who quote them, meaning that they cannot safely be declared older than the tanna to whom they are first ascribed. It is certain, however, that the seven middot of Hillel and the 13 of Rabbi Ishmael are earlier than the time of Hillel himself, who was the first to transmit them. At all events, he did not invent them, but merely collected them as current in his day, though he possibly amplified them.
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He was the author of Perush Shelosh Esreh Middot or (Commentary on the Thirteen Attributes of God), and his most important work, the Sefer ha-Yiḥud (The Book of Unity, an explanation of the Tetragrammaton and the sefirot), which is the first Kabbalistic treatise to be preserved integrally. He identifies, on the one hand, the ten Sefirot with the ten spheres of the philosophers, and, on the other, explains the thirteen attributes of God as derivations of the three middle Sefirot: (love, justice, mercy), which he designates as fundamental principles. According to Gershom Sholem Asher ben David is the main transmitter of Kabbalistic doctrines to the Catalan rabbinic schools, and in particular the School of Girona, in the early thirteenth century.Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah, Princeton, 1987, p. 252.
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According to the Mishnah (Middot 1:3), a compendium of oral teachings received and compiled by Rabbi Judah the Prince in 189 CE, only one gate on the western side of the Temple Mount was actually in use and "served for coming in and for going out," namely, the Kiponus Gate.The Mishnah, Herbert Danby (ed.), Oxford University Press: London 1977, p. 590 The other gates, presumably, had been sealed earlier. It is of singular importance that Josephus notes that of the gates built into the western enclosure of the Temple Mount, there was a bridge that also ascended to one of these gates and which same bridge was broken-off by the insurgents during their war with Rome, most likely the bridge leading to the only serviceable gate.
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Towards the front of the Temple Courtyard on the mount, and surrounding the Temple building, known as the Sanctuary (Azarah), was a low fence (soreg) designating the area beyond which a non-Jew, or a Jew who was ritually impure because of contact with a corpse (tumat met), could not proceed. The main entrance to the Temple Courtyard was in the east and the Temple Sanctuary (Azarah) stood in the Temple Courtyard. There was a large open area between the eastern gate of the Courtyard and the Sanctuary. The Sanctuary area was divided into three areas, the first upon entering the Courtyard, was the Ezrat Nashim, the Women's Court, separated from the Ezrat Yisrael, the Israelite's Court by fifteen steps and "Nicanor's Gate", then the section containing the outer Altar (Middot 5:1) and finally, the Temple building itself.
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Moreover, the bottom step on the western side of the Dome of the Rock platform is composed of a single line of distinctively large and "beautifully polished" ashlars. According to Ritmeyer, the measurements given in the Mishna, tractate Middot, "The Temple Mount measured 500 cubits by 500 cubits," can be traced on the modern Temple Mount, with this step the outline of the western side of the square and the Eastern Wall the eastern side. The "precise" measurement of an ancient Judean royal cubit, 20.67 inches, outlines these landmarks area exactly. The northern edge of the ancient square was demarcated by Charles Warren, the last archaeologist permitted by the local waqf to explore the underground areas of the Mount, in his the underground structure he labeled as No. 29 in surveys he carried out in the 1860s.
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The 1st-century historian, Josephus, who mentions the "eastern gate" in his Antiquities, makes note of the fact that this gate was considered within the far northeastern extremity of the inner sacred court.Josephus, Antiquities 15.424 According to the Mishnah, there was formerly a causeway which led out of the Temple Mount eastward over the Kidron valley, extending as far as the Mount of Olives.Mishnah (Parah 3:6; Middot 1:3) Rabbi Eliezer, dissenting, says that it was not a causeway, but rather marble pillars over which cedar boards had been laid, used by the High Priest and his entourage.Tosefta Parah 3:7 This gate was not used by the masses to enter the Temple Mount, but reserved only for the High Priest and all those that aided him when taking out the Red Heifer or the scapegoat on the Day of Atonement.
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Immediately after this Akivian "solution" to the puzzle of thrones referred to in Song of Songs and the two thrones spoken of in Daniel, Chapter , the text presents Akiva as being pressured—and then acquiescing to—a domesticated version of this twoness theme for the single Jewish God which would be acceptable to Rabbinic officialdom. The text offers Justice [din] and Charity (ts'daqqa) as the middot of God which are enthroned in Heaven. (Again, 14a-ii) Akher's non- Messianic and Metatron-oriented version of this "two-thrones"/"two-powers"-in- Heaven motif is discussed at length in the entry "Paradigmatia" of the above- mentioned study. The generic point in all of this is that by the time of the final editing of the Mishna this whole motif (along with other dimensions of Merkabah-oriented study and practice) came to be severely discouraged by Rabbinic officialdom.
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Biblical mile () is a unit of distance on land, or linear measure, principally used by Jews during the Herodian dynasty to ascertain distances between cities and to mark the Sabbath limit, equivalent to about ⅔ of an English statute mile, or what was about four furlongs (stadia).Although a furlong (stadion) is an obsolete measure of length, according to the historian Josephus there were about four furlongs to a biblical mile. The Southern Wall of Jerusalem's Temple Mount is in length, and which Josephus equates as being equal to the length of one furlong (Greek: stadion). See: Josephus, Antiquities (15.11.3; XV.415–416), who described the dimensions of the Temple Mount in the following terms (apparently not including the extension made to the Temple Mount): “This hill was walled all round, and in compass four furlongs; [the distance of] each angle containing in length a furlong (Gr. stadion).” Compare Mishnah Middot 2:1 which states that the Temple Mount measured five-hundred cubits (Heb.
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To be able to discuss with the Rabbinites the kinds of work permitted or forbidden on the Sabbath, he was obliged to state his own exegetical rules, and to show that Karaites are not inferior to the Rabbinites as exegetes. After giving the thirteen rules ("middot") of R. Ishmael ben Elisha and the thirty-two of R. Eliezer ben Jose ha-Gelili, he gives his own, dividing them into two groups, one of sixty and one of eighty, and finding an allusion to them in the Song of Solomon vi. 8. The sixty "queens" denote the sixty grammatical rules, headed by five "kings" (the five vowels); the eighty "concubines" denote the eighty exegetical rules; and the "virgins without number" represent the numberless grammatical forms in the Hebrew language. Considering phonetics as necessary for the interpretation of the Law, Hadassi devotes to this study a long treatise, in the form of questions and answers.
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The period of the counting of the Omer is considered to be a time of potential for inner growth – for a person to work on one's good characteristics (middot) through reflection and development of one aspect each day for the 49 days of the counting. In Kabbalah, each of the seven weeks of the Omer-counting is associated with one of the seven lower sefirot: #Chesed (loving-kindness), #Gevurah (might), #Tipheret (beauty), #Netzach (victory), #Hod (acknowledgment), #Yesod (foundation), #Malchut (kingdom). Each day of each week is also associated with one of these same seven sefirot, creating forty-nine permutations. The first day of the Omer is therefore associated with "chesed that is in chesed" (loving-kindness within loving-kindness), the second day with "gevurah that is in chesed" (might within loving-kindness); the first day of the second week is associated with "chesed that is in gevurah" (loving-kindness within might), the second day of the second week with "gevurah that is in gevurah" (might within might), and so on.
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Archaeologist Leen Ritmeyer reportsRitmeyer, Leen, The Quest (2006), pp. 263–268. that there are sections of the rock cut completely flat, which north-to-south have a width of 6 cubits, precisely the width that the MishnahTractate Middot 4.7 credits to the wall of the Holy of Holies, and hence Ritmeyer proposed that these flat sections constitute foundation trenches on top of which the walls of the original temple were laid. However, according to Josephus there were 31 steps up to the Holy of Holies from the lower level of the Temple Mount, and the Mishnah identifies 29 steps in total, and each step was half a cubit in height (according to the Mishnah); this is a height of at least 22 feet—the height of the Sakhra is 21 feet above the lower level of the Temple Mount, and should therefore have been under the floor. Measuring the flat surface as the position of the southern wall of a square enclosure, the west and north sides of which are formed by the low clean-cut scarp at these edges of the rock, at the position of the hypothetical centre is a rectangular cut in the rock that is about 2.5 cubits (min.
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