AbravanelThe Abravanel family ( ʾAbravanʾēl or ʾAbarbənəʾēl), also spelled as Abarbanel, Abrabanel, Avravanel, Barbernell, or Barbanel – literally meaning Ab ("father") rabban ("priest") el ("of God") – is one of the oldest and most distinguished Jewish families. It first achieved prominence on the Iberian peninsula during the Middle Ages. Its members claim to trace their origin to the biblical King David. Members of this family lived in Seville, Córdoba (Spanish province), Castile-Leon, and Calatayud.
Judah ha-NasiJudah ha-Nasi (יְהוּדָה הַנָּשִׂיא, Yəhūḏā hanNāsīʾ; Yehudah HaNasi or Judah the Prince) or Judah I, known simply as Rebbi or Rabbi, was a second-century rabbi (a tanna of the fifth generation) and chief redactor and editor of the Mishnah. He lived from approximately 135 to 217 CE. He was a key leader of the Jewish community in Roman-occupied Judea after the Bar Kokhba revolt. The title nasi was used for presidents of the Sanhedrin. He was the first nasi to have this title added permanently to his name; in traditional literature he is usually called "Rabbi Yehuda ha-Nasi.
Sephardic law and customsSephardic law and customs are the law and customs of Judaism which are practiced by Sephardim or Sephardic Jews ( "Jews of Spain"); the descendants of the historic Jewish community of the Iberian Peninsula, what is now Spain and Portugal. Many definitions of "Sephardic" also include Mizrahi Jews, most of whom follow the same traditions of worship as those which are followed by Sephardic Jews. The Sephardi Rite is not a denomination nor is it a movement like Orthodox Judaism, Reform Judaism, and other Ashkenazi Rite worship traditions.
Yehud MedinataYehud, also known as Yehud Medinata or Yehud Medinta, was an autonomous administrative province of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. It was one of several such provinces in Palestine, with the others being Moab, Ammon, Gilead, Samaria, Ashdod and Idumea, constituting the fifth Persian satrapy of Eber-Nari. Located in Judea, it continued to exist for two centuries before it was incorporated into the Hellenistic empires following the Wars of Alexander the Great.
Jewish historyJewish history is the history of the Jews, and their nation, religion, and culture, as it developed and interacted with other peoples, religions, and cultures. Jews are originated from the Israelites and Hebrews of historical Israel and Judah, two related kingdoms that emerged in the Levant during the Iron Age. Although the earliest mention of Israel is inscribed on the Merneptah Stele around 1213–1203 BCE, religious literature tells the story of Israelites going back at least as far as c. 1500 BCE.
History of the Jews in SpainThe history of the Jews in the current-day Spanish territory stretches back to Biblical times according to Jewish tradition, but the settlement of organised Jewish communities in the Iberian Peninsula possibly traces back to the times after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. The earliest archaeological evidence of Hebrew presence in Iberia consists of a 2nd-century gravestone found in Mérida. From the late 6th century onward, following the Visigothic monarchs' conversion from Arianism to the Nicene Creed, conditions for Jews in Iberia considerably worsened.
