AMRAM an-
known
OF JERUSALEM
uuilcr
tliis iiainc.
Two splmlars A contcmpomry of
1.
Kaslii (cli'Vciilli century), who inaiiitiiiiicd a It'anicd scholar corri'SiioiKlcncr with Sariiucl liaKolicn. 2. who lived a hundred years later and was in corre-
A
spondence with Alirahani ben David BiBLIOiiRAPllv
.Ui.mi(sti()iri/(, xll.
'Jt»>;
03
SI)-
Ziinz, S.
/'.
U12.
J.
S.
AMRAM OF MAYENCE (MENTZ):
A
H. sjiinl
wlium tile rnlluwinic le.ixeiMlistold. After heen the head of a school at .Mayeiiee, his native place, he went to ('oloi::ne to found a school. A.s liis end drew near, he e.i)ressed to his ])ii])ils the desire to be buried with liis fathers in Mayence, but feariiifr olistaeles, they hesitaleil to promise to fullil his wishes. Thereupon he ordered them lo [ilaee his colIin ii|)on a boat on the Rhine, and let it go forth This they did. but no sooner was the bodjalone. of the .saint put iiito the l)oat than, to the .great astonishment of all the people, it look its course up the Rhine, and without boatmen or rudder made for the All city of Mayence and turned toward thi' shore.
and
ralihiiil'
liavintr
the inhabitants came to see the wondrous sight, and marveli'd who the saint might be that ))erformed such miracles even when dead. At last the Jews learned of the death of the master of Cologne, and they took the body ashore, desiring to honor him by solemn f)bseindes in the syna.ii"ogue. 15ut the Christian bislio)) objected, claiming him as a s;iint of the Church and giving orders to bury him as a ChrisAnother miracle followed. The body became tian. so heavy that none could move it from the spot. Straightway the bishop ordered that Amram's a church should be Iniilt directly over the body of w saint, and set watchChurch. men to guard it, lest the Jews should take it away by .stealth. Then the siiint appeared in a vision to liis pupils in Cologne, and told them to liave his bo<ly taken at midnight while the watch-
men were
aslee]),
w hieh they This legend was
place
and
to put
another corpse
in its
did.
still narrated at the beginning of the nineteenth century as an a<tual occurrence; and a pictorial representation on an old house near one of the gatesof Mayence, close to the shore of the river, was shown to iiluslrale the fact. The name of the church was St. Kmmeran's Church. Teiidlau ("liuch (1. Sagen u. I.egendeii Ji'idischer Vor/.eit"; "DieAmnim's Kirche." pp. !)-l.")) refers in a note (p. ii'iA) to the "Shalshelet iia-Kabbalal.i " anil other sources, wondering how the s;ime story could have lieen told of R. .inram of Regensburg( instead of Cologne) in one of the • .Maasebl'ieher" (books of legends), lie certainly liacl no knowledgeof the strange fact that, in connection with St. I'.mmeran's Church near Repenslinrg, he same story was toll by Christians; vi/. that Saint Emmeran had died in Munich, and that his body had been carried with wondrous rapidity in a boai willioul boatmen from the river Isar up the Danube to Regensburg, when' in honor of the saint the eliapil was erected (see Panzer, " Hairische SaSininpely enough, the Jews were esgen," i. i'i). pecially held up lo reproach for not liellevhig this miracle regarding St. Kmmeran's Church (see Perl/., " .Monumiiita (Jirniaida'." vi. .'">l!», i|Uoteil by Cassel. arlicle ".luileii." in Krsch uiid (iruber. p. (>7. note .'itil. In all probability the .lew isli leL'enil was liurroweil from the Chi isi Ian, and Kinmeraii transformed into Amram; nothing else lieing known of R. .Vninim, Moses either in .Mayence, Cologne, or Regensluirg. Sofer takes jiiin for Amram (Jaon, and says Ihal he I
I
saw
Amram, David Werner
THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
835
his
yim,"
grave
p. 10).
ill
Mayence
C Ilatam Sofer, Onil.i
l.lay-
Concerning Ihe origin of the old Ten
Amram ben Sheshna
tonic legend, see Liebreclit's edition of Gervasius of p. 149; Mannhardt,"Gernianische Mythen." p. 360; compare also Uscner's
Tilbury •(Jlia Iniperialia." "Sinttlutsagen."
See A.mnon of M.wexce.
K.
AMRAM, NATHAN BEN HAYYIM
Palestinian Mhi'lar and author wlio lloiirishrd at Hebron in the second (juarter of Ihe nineteenth century. Amram was selected by the Sephardic communilies of Palestine as European a.i;ent to collect moneys for them. He wrote: fjlj ]'jp (" The Aciiuisilion of
Properly"), containing notes on Caro's "Shulhaiv 'Aruk, lloshen Mishpat " (Leghorn, 183(1) niTS j'Jp ("The Attainment of Prints"), a ritual wmk alphabetically arranged (Leghorn, 184IJV); TV (" .Might and Joy "), a collection of essjiyson the kill ingof Abel by Cain, the transmigration of souls, and on various litur.irical questions (Amsterdam, 1842); 3nt niXatitD ("Ouchesof CJold "), res]>on.sa on certain aspectsof ihelawof iidieritance Leghorn, 1S,")1) Qjjj nnon ("The Ueauly of a Moral Life"), a compilation of ethical views, aphorisms, and sayings, alphabetically arranged (Salonica, 1854). He al.so edited anil prefaced several works of earlier writers.
nnm
(
Mm.
Bibliography: Zedner. Cat. Ihhr. »»*,< Brit. Cataloyue of Biblical Lihrani,
Itoeiit,
1.
p. 47;
65.
M. H.
AMRAM, RAB
A
Babylonian amora of the
third griirralioii iloiirth century); contem]iorary of Hisda. Nahman. and Abba l)arM'emel(I$. 15. TOif, Ket. itb/. Ver. B. M. i. 7(/). Anu'am is better known in
domain of the llalakah than in the field of the Ibm^uadah, though even in the former he is but rarely
the
oriyinal ('Er.
Shebu.
Win:
Pes. 10,>(;
Bek.
Yoma,
7S</
Git. 264;
Yer. ]Iak. i. aii;; It is related that in the course of Y'er. Shell, x. ^iHc). a controver.sy between Rab Amram and Rabbah. the latter had advanced a legal ojiinion. when the former Rabbah, deftly inter|iiised a number of objections. in his imiiatience, called his adversary a fool; whereuiion a cedar jiillar in the college buildin.ir cracked, and <ach jiarty to the controver.sy construed the occurrence as a heavenlv sign of his havinir been S M. wronged by the other (IS". M.iOA). 11/-;
H"!-
52:
27i/;
AMRAM IBN SALAMEH IBN GHAZAL HA-KOHEN HA-LEVI: .Samaritan litur.Lncal . niiniliirot ]irayrrsby himare incorporated a liturgy, a fragment of which is in the Bodleian Library alOxford. England. They consist of hymns for the ten penilenlial days, for both Ihe morning and Ihe evening services, as well as lituriiic poems for the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles, morninir and eveiiinff. Compare Neiibauer, "Cat. Bodl. I'lebr. MSS." No. 2."i37. p. 2.
jioel.
in
II
AMRAM BEN SHESHNA Amram
.r
r.
r.
SHUSHNA
Gaon oi Mar-Amram); lle.-id (kiinu a^ of the Sura .ra(liiii, diiil about S7."i. llr was a pupil of Natronai 11., Gaon of Sura, and wa.s exceptionally honored with the title of G.()N within Ihe lifeLpon Xatronai's death, aboiil lime of liis leaeiier. W", the full title and dignities of Ihe gaonate were conferred upon Amram, and he held lliein until his death. He is Ihe author of about 12(1 resimiisa (llie grialer pari published in Salonica, 17!t2. in Ihe collection entitled "Sliaare Zedik") loiKliing almost every deparlineiit of Jewish jurisprudence. They arc (if gnat value in alTording an insight into .inram's pei-sonalily as well as into the religious coiiililionsiimong the Jewsof llial period. The followiiijr deeisiiins will serve in illustration: Interest may not II
be exacled even from nmiJews, nor even such minor protils as the- Talmud designates as fl'TT p3S (" t'le
