Simple typographical errors were corrected.
Occasional unpaired quotation marks were remedied when the intent was clear; otherwise they were left unchanged.
Some dates and spellings in this book differ from dates given in other sources.
Hyperlinks and Cross-References
Many cross-reference links in the Index are approximate: they lead to similarly-spelled entries, rather than to exact matches.
This eBook contains links to the other five volumes of this series at [Project Gutenberg]. Within a Browser session, the first time such a link is used, it may lead to the relevant eBook, rather than to a specific page. Thereafter, within the same session, links to pages in the other eBooks should lead to the specified pages.
Links to other eBooks generally are supported only by Browsers, not by eReaders.
Index references to pages in other volumes of this series have not been checked systematically for spelling, accuracy, or validity. These references were corrected based on examination of the other volumes of this series:
Page [150]: “Acra”, volume 1, page 524, referred to page 585.
Page [238]: “Cromwell”, volume 5, page 43, referred to volume 4.
Page [275]: “Ezra’s opinion of intermarriages”, volume 1, pages 367–8, referred to volume 2.
Page [311] “Havayot”, volume 2, page 585, referred to volume 1.
Page [346]: “Jacob, Syrian priest”, volume 5, page 662, referred to volume 2.
Page [459]: “Talmudist, under Moses ben Isaac Alashkar”, volume 4, page 392, referred to volume 5.
Page [528]: “Reïs”, volume 3, page 443, referred to volume 5.
Page [604]: “Tiberius, death of”, volume 2, page 174, referred to volume 3.
Page [150]: “Acra”, volume 1, page 524, referred to page 585.
Page [238]: “Cromwell”, volume 5, page 43, referred to volume 4.
Page [275]: “Ezra’s opinion of intermarriages”, volume 1, pages 367–8, referred to volume 2.
Page [311] “Havayot”, volume 2, page 585, referred to volume 1.
Page [346]: “Jacob, Syrian priest”, volume 5, page 662, referred to volume 2.
Page [459]: “Talmudist, under Moses ben Isaac Alashkar”, volume 4, page 392, referred to volume 5.
Page [528]: “Reïs”, volume 3, page 443, referred to volume 5.
Page [604]: “Tiberius, death of”, volume 2, page 174, referred to volume 3.
Hebrew Translations and Transliterations
Page [3]: Beyt Shmuel Acharon is the title of a book.
Page [7]: Cheshbon Ha’itim: An Accounting of the Seasons.
Page [11]: Igeret Tzafon: Letter to the North.
Page [12]: Igeret Tzafon: Letter to the North.
Page [13]: Berachot: Tractate Berachot (“Benedictions”), the first volume of the Talmud.
Page [16]: Yoter mishe’egel rotzeh linak, haparah rotzah l’hanik: Literally, this Talmudic doctrine means, “More than the calf desires to suck, the cow desires to suckle.” Figuratively it means that the teacher is more anxious to teach than the pupil is to learn.
Page [16]: Pesach haba aleynu l’tovah: Next Passover, may it be for good. In the original book, the Hebrew text used character-spanning zargas on pages 16 and 27, indicating abbreviations. In this eBook, zargas have been replaced by gershayim (quotation marks), as that is the convention in Modern Hebrew.
Footnote 6, originally on page 16: Yoter mimah she’egel rotzeh linak, haparah rotzah l’hanik: this is a variant phrasing of the “More than the calf....” Talmudic doctrine.
Page [18]: Pesach: Passover.
Page [20]: Sh’eylot: Questions of Jewish law.
Page [20]: Divrei ervah: Matters of of ervah (literally “nakedness”); these are laws regarding physical or sexual immodesty.
Page [20]: tamei: Unclean or ritually taboo.
Page [20]: M’tamei: Resulting in ritual impurity.
Page [23]: Toldot Avot: Title of a book, meaning “The History of the Forefathers”.
Page [27]: Rifim: The works of the “Rif”. An acronym for the 11th Century Talmudist, Rabbi Isaac Al-Fasi. In the original book, the Hebrew text used a zarga, which has been replaced here as explained earlier.
Page [27]: Nefilim: giants.
Page [27]: Rav: rabbi, particularly one held in great esteem.
Page [30]: Sefer Yetzirah: the mystical tome, “Book of Creation”. The Hebrew was misprinted in the 1956 edition from which this transcription was made, but was printed correctly in the 1898 edition; the correct Hebrew spelling is used in this eBook.
Page [37]: Hatarat hora’ah: Authorization to issue rabbinic rulings.
Page [65]: tet: the Hebrew letter tet; kof: the Hebrew letter kof.
Page [65]: Titus: Titus; Kitus: Quietus.
Genealogy Charts on pages [130] and [134]
In the original book, some marriages were indicated by “m.” and others by “=”. To conserve the width of these charts, some of the “=” notation has been replaced by “m.”
Names originally printed in boldface are shown here in UPPERCASE.
This eBook is derived from images at The Internet Archive ([www.archive.org]). Some names and dates were missing from those images because they had been printed too close to the binding to be scanned. The missing information has been reconstructed by examining the [Chronological Table] beginning on page [90] and a physical copy of an earlier edition of the book.