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א ב ג ד ה ו ז ח ט י כ ל מ נ ס ע פ צ ק ר ש ת | ||||||
אַבְנֵר
father of
יַעֲשִׂיאֵל
אַבְנֵר בֶּן נֵר (אֲבִינֵר) (שמואל א יד:נ, כו, שמואל ב ב, ג)
שאול 's
cousin and general of his army.
דוד
accuses
אבנר
of not protecting
שאול
adequately when
דוד
has an opportunity to kill
שאול .
After
שאול 's
death,
אבנר
crowns
שאול 's
son
איש בשת
king over Israel.
אבנר
challenges
דוד 's
general,
יואב בן צרויה ,
to a battle and Israel's soldiers get routed (losing 360 men to
דוד 's
20) although
אבנר
does kill
יואב 's
brother
עֲשָׂהאֵל .
After
אִישׁ בֹּשֶׁת
accuses
אבנר
of sleeping with
שאול 's
concubine
רִצְפָּה בַּת אַיָה ,
אבנר
defects to
דוד 's
camp and convinces the elders of Israel to accept
דוד
as their king. Nevertheless, even though
אבנר
has become
דוד 's
ally,
יואב
kills
אבנר
in revenge for his brother
עשהאל 's
death.
דוד
is appalled at this treachery and curses
יואב
and his family for slaying a great warrior of Israel.
אִבְצָן (שופטים יב:ח-י)
Tenth
שׁוֹפֵט
of Israel,
אִבְצָן
is from
בֵּית לֶחֶם
and judges for seven years.
אִבְצָן
has 30 sons and 30 daughters. The
מדרש
claims that
אבצן
and
בעז
are one and the same (בבא בתרא צא .).
אַבְרָהָם (בראשית יא-כה, דברי הימים א א:כז )
Founding father of Judaism, the first of Israel's three patriarchs:
אברהם ,
יצחק ,
יעקב .
Born
אַבְרָם
in
אוּר כַּשְׂדִים ,
he represents the tenth generation after
נח .
The
תורה
reveals nothing about
אברם 's
childhood, but the
מדרש
tells us stories about the patriarch intuiting the existence of God and smashing idols in his father's idol shop (see for example
במדבר רבה יד :ב
and
בראשית רבה לח :ח ).
אברם 's
wife
שָׂרַי
is barren. Led by
תרח ,
the family sets out from
אור כשדים
for
ארץ כענן .
They get as far as
חָרָן
where
תרח
dies (פרשת נח ). God appears to
אברם
and tells him to leave his homeland and travel to a land that He will show him. This first communication of God to
אברם
is considered the first of many tests posed by the Lord to
אברהם .
According to
פרקי אבות ,
אברהם
faces ten challenges in his long relationship with God (פרקי אבות ה :ג .
Commentaries on this
משנה
provide different compilations of episodes to reach ten tests - see below). At this early point in
אברם 's
story, God promises to make
אברם
a great nation.
אברם
accedes to God's command and travels to
כנען
with his wife and his nephew
לוט ,
following God's lead. Once there, God makes His second promise: to give the land to
אברם 's
descendants. These two promises:
אברם
will have many descendants, and they will inherit the land of Israel, are repeated often to
אברהם
as well as to
יצחק
and
יעקב .
The promises are referred to frequently in the rest of the
תורה
(see for example
שמות ו :ד
and
שמות לב :יג ) and
נ "ך ,
and remain strong beliefs in Judaism. A famine in
כנען
sends
אברם
and
שרי
to Egypt where
אברם
pretends that his wife is his sister. Upon returning to
כנען ,
אברם
and
לוט
part ways since each is very wealthy and their flocks require separate grazing land.
לוט
who chooses to live in
סְדֹם
gets caught up in a war between city states and
אברם
rushes to his rescue. In gratitude for his assistance,
ברע ,
the king of
סדם ,
offers the plunder to
אברם
who turns him down saying that he'd rather his wealth was attributed to God's beneficence and not the king's gifts. God again promises
אברם
that he will found a great nation and compares his descendants to the numerous stars (בראשית טו :ה ). God and
אברם
strike a covenant known as "
בְּרִית בֵּין הַבְּתָרִים "
in which the promise of the land is again enunciated. During this episode God informs
אברם
that his descendants will be oppressed in a foreign land. Following his wife's suggestion,
אברם
marries
הגר ,
שרי 's
maid, so that she may bear
אברם
a child, since
שרי
remains barren.
אברם
is 86 years old when
הגר
gives birth to a son,
ישמעאל .
God appears to
אברם
again, promising to give him the land and to make him the founder of a great nation. To emphasize this second point God changes His beneficiary's name from
אברם
to
אברהם ,
arguing that
אברהם
signifies "father of a multitude of nations" (בראשית יז :ה ). It is at this time that God introduces the practice of circumcision to
אברהם .
He is commanded to circumcise himself and all future male descendants. This will be the physical sign of the covenant between God and
אברהם 's
family. God also renames
שרי
in preparation for her becoming a mother, changing her name to
שרה .
Upon hearing that he and his wife will have a son together,
אברהם
laughs. He is, after all, 99 years old at this point and
שרה
is 90. Nevertheless, God assures him that he will have a son and instructs that the boy be named
יצחק .
The covenant that God has forged with
אברהם
will find expression in
יצחק .
אברהם
proceeds to circumcise himself,
ישמעאל
and all of his household (פרשת לך לך ). Three men come to visit
אברהם
and during the course of the encounter
שרה
overhears the news that she will give birth to a son in a year (according to the popular interpretation of this story the three men were angels. See
רש "י
on
בראשית יח :א
which is based on the
מדרש
from
בבא מציעא פב :).
God informs
אברהם
that He plans on destroying the towns of
סְדֹם
and
עֲמֹרָה
due to the wickedness of their inhabitants. This leads to a lengthy dialogue between God and
אברהם
wherein the latter begs God to spare the towns.
אברהם
travels to
גְּרָר
where he again presents his wife as his sister.
אבימליך ,
the king, takes
שרה .
He is warned by God in a dream that he will die for having taken a married woman.
אבימלך
confronts
אברהם
who defends himself by arguing that indeed
שרה
is related to him on his father's side (see
רש "י
to
בראשית כ :יב ), and by claiming that he had to protect himself from the immorality of the place.
אבימלך
sends the couple away with many gifts and later on forges a pact with
אברהם .
יצחק
is born and is circumcised.
אברהם 's
other son
ישמעאל
makes sport of
יצחק ,
and
שרה
demands that
אברהם
banish
ישמעאל
and
הגר ,
saying that she will not have
ישמעאל
inherit along with
יצחק .
אברהם
is upset by
שרה 's
request but God tells him to grant
שרה 's
wish.
אברהם
sends
ישמעאל
and
הגר
away, and God promises him that
ישמעאל
too will found a great nation. God gives
אברהם
his greatest test when He asks him to sacrifice
יצחק
on an altar - the episode known as
עֲקֵדַת יִצְחָק .
Without hesitation,
אברהם
takes his son and travels to a place indicated by God and prepares to kill his son. At the last moment
אברהם
is stopped by an angel who declares that
אברהם
has proven his complete faith by this act of utter submission to the will of God (פרשת וירא ).
שרה
dies at age 127, and after mourning her
אברהם
proceeds to buy a burial plot and cave from
עפרון החתי ,
at a location in
חֶבְרוֹן
known as
מְעָרַת הַמַּכְפֵּלָה .
אברהם
next sends his servant to his homeland to find a wife for
יצחק .
אברהם
refuses to let his son marry a local girl and also warns the servant against taking
יצחק
out of
כנען
to settle in
אברהם 's
native land.
אברהם
lives to 175 and upon his death is buried in the family burial plot by his sons
יצחק
and
ישמעאל
(פרשת חיי שרה ).
אברהם
remains the father figure for the Jewish people and is generally called
אַבְרָהָם אָבִינוּ -
אברהם
our father. The Bible, the prayer book and Jewish culture often recall the unique relationship
אברהם
had with God, sometimes referring to God as
אֱלֹ -הֵי אַבְרָהָם -
the God of
אברהם .
The Talmud credits
אברהם
with contributing to the composition of
תהלים
(בבא בתרא יד :.
רש "י
suggests that this means that
אברהם
and
איתן האזרחי
are one and the same;
איתן
is mentioned in
תהלים פט :א .).
פרקי אבות ה :ג states that אברהם passes 10 tests put to him by God. Here is one list of these trials as assembled by the רמב "ם . 1. Emigration to a foreign country which God commands (בראשית יב :א -ו ). 2. The famine that אברהם encounters upon reaching his destination, though told he would prosper (יב :י ). 3. The treachery of the Egyptians when שרה is taken to the palace (יב :יד -כ ). 4. The war of the five kings versus the four that אברהם participates in (פרק יד ). 5. אברהם 's marriage to הגר after despairing of שרה having a child (פרק טז ). 6. God's command to אברהם to circumcise himself (יז :ט -יד ). 7. The treachery of the king of גרר when שרה is taken by him (פרק כ ). 8. The banishment of הגר after she bore him a son (כא :ט -כא ). 9. The banishment of ישמעאל from the household (כא :ט -כא ) אַבְרָם
the former name of
אַבְרָהָם
אַבְשָׁלוֹם בֶּן דָּוִד (שמואל ב ג:ג, יג-יח, דברי הימים א ג:ב)
דוד 's
third son whose mother is
מַעֲכָה בַּת תַּלְמַי .
When
אבשלום 's
sister
תמר
is raped by their half brother
אמנון ,
אבשלום
takes
תמר
into his house. Two years after that,
אבשלום
gets his revenge when he kills
אמנון
at sheep shearing festivities.
אבשלום
then escapes to
גשור
to his maternal grandfather
תלמי ,
with whom he stays for three years. Thanks to the intervention of
יואב
(אבשלום 's
cousin)
דוד
is persuaded to allow
אבשלום
to return to
ירושלים .
Nevertheless,
אבשלום
is not allowed in the palace but remains unseen by
דוד
for two more years. In order to get
יואב 's
attention,
אבשלום
sets his field on fire;
יואב
then agrees to get
אבשלום
an audience with
דוד .
דוד
embraces
אבשלום
but is soon betrayed by him. Chapters 15 through 19 in
שמואל ב
tell the story of
אבשלום 's
rebellion against
דוד .
אבשלום
first builds up popular support among the people and then declares himself king in
חברון .
דוד
flees
ירושלים
when he realizes that the nation is with his son. He takes with him soldiers and loyalists all weeping at their misfortune.
אבשלום
follows
אחיתפל 's
advice and sleeps with
דוד 's
concubines who have remained in
ירושלים ,
a sign of
אבשלום 's
usurpation of his father's throne. But God forces
אבשלום
to accept
חושי 's
battle plan over
אחיתפל 's
which was objectively sounder. When
דוד
finally sends out an army to confront
אבשלום 's
forces,
דוד 's
men are victorious and 20,000 men of Israel are killed.
אבשלום ,
riding a donkey under a terebinth tree, gets his hair caught in the branches and is stuck there.
יואב
hears that
אבשלום
is trapped and he kills the prince while he hangs in the tree. Before his death,
אבשלום
had set up a monument to himself called
"יד אבשלום ".
אָגֵא הָרָרִי
father of
שַׁמָּה
אֲגָג (שמואל א טו )
King of
עמלק
whom
שאול
fails to kill, leading to
שאול 's
dethronement. According to the midrash,
אגג
is the ancestor of
המן
(מגילה יג .).
אָגוּר בֶּן יָקֶה (משלי ל:א)
A contributing author to the book of
משלי .
According to the
מדרש ,
the name
אגור
is a pseudonym for
שלמה ,
the accepted author of the book (ילקוט שמעוני משלי רמז ).
אַדְבְּאֵל בֶּן יִשְׁמָעֵאל (בראשית כה:יג, דברי הימים א א:כט )
A son of
ישמעאל .
אִדּו (עזרא ח:טו-כ)
The head of the Jewish community at
כָּסִפְיָא .
During his journey to Israel,
עזרא
realizes that his company lacks
לְוִיִּם
to serve in the rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem. He sends messengers to
אדו
asking him to supply the necessary men for the group heading towards the homeland.
אדו
complies and sends along roughly 40
לוים
to fill the Levite jobs in the Temple.
אֲדַלְיָא בֶּן הָמָן (אסתר ט:ח)
המן 's
ten sons are hanged following his downfall.
אדליא
is one of them.
אָדָם (בראשית א-ה, דברי הימים א א:א )
The world's first human. Created by God on the sixth day of creation,
אדם
and his counterpart,
אשה
(later named
חוה )
are placed in
גן עדן
and commanded to populate the earth.
אדם
is given rule over all of nature and is permitted to subjugate the animal kingdom and to eat from all the plants he sees save from the
עץ הדעת טוב ורע .
The woman he is with is persuaded by the snake to eat this forbidden fruit and she then tempts
אדם
to partake as well. As punishment for their disobedience the couple is expelled from
גן עדן
and given individual punishments as well.
אדם
is told that his sustenance will from now on be secured only through toil.
אדם
has three sons:
קין ,
הבל
and
שת
and lives for 930 years (פרשת בראשית ). The Talmud credits
אדם
with contributing to the composition of
תהלים
(בבא בתרא יד :.
רש "י
suggests that
תהלים קלט :טז
is his work.).
אַדְמָתָא (אסתר א:יד )
One of King
אֲחַשְׁוֵרוֹשׁ 's
closest advisors. Following the slight of Queen
וַשְׁתִּי ,
he is among those consulted when the king seeks an appropriate response to his wife's disobedience.
אֲדֹנִי בֶזֶק (שופטים א)
A Canaanite king captured and killed during
שבט יהודה 's
conquest of its territory.
אדני בזק
is a wicked king who severs the thumbs and big toes of his captured foes and forces them (70 in all) to scrounge for scraps of food under his table. The men from
יהודה
disfigure him in like manner.
אֲדֹנִי צֶדֶק (יהושע י)
King of
ירושלים
from the nation of
אֱמֹר .
Upon hearing of
יהושע 's
conquest of
יריחו
and
עי
as well as the submission of the
גבעונים ,
אדני צדק
forges a pact with other local Amorite kings:
הוהם ,
פראם ,
יפיע
and
דביר .
Together the five attack
גבעון
for making peace with Israel. The outmanned
גבעונים
call
יהושע
for assistance.
יהושע
and his army arrive and defeat the five armies with two miracles thrown in by God to make the job easier.
אֲדֹנִיָּה (נחמיה י:יז)
A leader of the people during the time of
נחמיה ,
אדניה
is a signatory to a pledge - an
אֲמָנָה -
affirmed by the leaders of the community. Those who sign the declaration promise to observe the commandments of the Torah, to refrain from intermarrying, to avoid commerce on Shabbat, and to make regular donations to the Temple.
אֲדֹנִיָּהוּ (דברי הימים ב יז:ח)
The Judean king
יהושפט
is a righteous leader who walks in the ways of God. He sends a delegation of religious authorities on a circuit throughout the cities of
יהודה
to teach Torah to the people.
אדניהו ,
a
לוי ,
is one of the instructors in that group.
אֲדֹנִיָּה בֶּן דָּוִד (אֲדֹנִיָּה) (שמואל ב ג:ד, מלכים א א, ב, דברי הימים א ג:ב)
דוד 's
fourth son. His mother is
חַגִּית .
When
דוד
becomes old and weak,
אדניה
decides that he will be the next king. He assembles chariots and runners and gathers some of his father's advisors-
יואב בן צרויה
and
אביתר הכהן
to support him, spurning
צדוק הכהן ,
בניהו בן יהוידע ,
נתן הנביא ,
and of course
שלמה .
While celebrating
אדניה 's
imminent coronation,
יונתן בן אביתר
arrives with news that
דוד
has chosen
שלמה
as Israel's next leader. The party breaks up suddenly and
אדניה ,
fearing
שלמה ,
runs and seizes the horns of the
מזבח
believing that he will be safe there.
שלמה
sends word that if
אדניה
behaves, no harm will come to him. After
דוד
dies
אדניה
asks
בת שבע
to appeal to
שלמה
to grant him
דוד 's
concubine,
אבישג השונמית ,
as a wife.
שלמה
sees this as a challenge to his throne and he has
אדניה
killed by
בניהו בן יהוידע .
The story of
אדניה 's
attempt to seize Israel's throne and
דוד 's
selection of
שלמה
to succeed him (מלכים א פרק א ) is read as the
הפטרה
for
פרשת חיי שרה .
אֲדֹנִיקָם (עזרא ב:יג, ח:יג, נחמיה ז:יח )
666 (or 667) of this man's descendants return to
יהודה
with
זְרֻבָּבֶל
following the edict of
כּוֹרֶשׁ .
Other descendants of his accompany
עזרא
to Israel from
בבל .
אֲדֹנִירָם בֶּן עַבְדָּא (אֲדֹרָם , הֲדֹרָם) (מלכים א ד:ו, ה:כח, דברי הימים ב י:יח)
Labour minister under שלמה המלך and under his son רחבעם , responsible for enlisting people to work for the state. אדנירם is put in charge of organizing and dispatching labourers to cut timber in Lebanon for שלמה 's construction of the בית המקדש . After רחבעם 's rise to the throne, the king announces that he will be tougher on the people than his father was. אדרם was the first casualty of this policy. רחבעם sends אדרם to quell the rebellion against him, and the people of
ישראל
stone him to death.
אַדָּר בֶּן בֶּלַע (דברי הימים א ח:ג) אֲדֹרָם (שמואל ב כ:כד)
דוד 's
tax collector.
אַדְרַמֶּלֶךְ בֶּן סַנְחֵרִיב (מלכים ב יט:לז, ישעיה לז:לח)
Son and assassin of
סנחריב מלך אשור .
אֹהַד בֶּן שִׁמְעוֹן (בראשית מו:י, שמות ו:טו ) אֵהוּד בֶּן בִּלְהָן (דברי הימים א ז:י) אֵהוּד בֶּן גֵּרָא (שופטים ג)
The second of the
שופטים ,
this judge from
שבט בנימין
leads a rebellion against the
מואב
king,
עגלון .
אהוד
is left-handed which allows him to sneak a double-edged sword into the palace on his right thigh. At the right moment,
אהוד
stabs the king in the stomach and escapes to lead the Jews in battle against the oppressors. Following this victory, the land is peaceful for 80 years.
אֹהֶל (דברי הימים א ג:כ)
A son or grandson of
זְרֻבָּבֶל
and hence either a great-grandson or great-great-grandson of
יְהוֹיָכִין ,
the nineteenth king of
יהודה .
אָהֳלָה (יחזקאל כג)
The name given to the kingdom of
ישראל
(represented by its capital
שמרון ) by the prophet
יחזקאל
when the land is portrayed as an unfaithful woman. Her sister kingdom
יהודה
is called
אָהֳלִיבָה .
אָהֳלִיאָב בֶּן אֲחִיסָמָךְ (שמות לא:ו, לה:לד, לו:א, לח:כג )
This craftsman from
שבט דן
is appointed by God to assist
בצלאל
in the construction of the
משכן
utensils (פרשיות כי תשא ,
ויקהל ,
פקודי ).
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