Judaic Lecture #1 for the Jerusalem Science Contest 2017.

2. Rishonim
‫ראשונים‬Zerachiah ha-Levi of Girona
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Zerachiah ben Isaac ha-Levi Gerondi (Hebrew: ‫הלוי‬ ‫זרחיה‬), called the ReZaH, RaZBI or Baal Ha-Maor (author of the book
Ha-Maor) was born about 1125 in the town of Girona, Spain – hence the name Gerondi – and died after 1186 in Lunel. He
was a famous rabbi, Torah and Talmud commentator and a poet.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Judah Halevi (also Yehuda Halevi or ha-Levi;
c. 1075 – 1141) was a Spanish Jewish
physician, poet and philosopher. He was born in
Spain, either in Toledo or Tudela, in 1075 or
1086, and died shortly after arriving in Palestine
in 1141, at that point the Crusader Kingdom of
Jerusalem. Halevi is considered one of the
greatest Hebrew poets, celebrated both for his
religious and secular poems, many of which
appear in present-day liturgy. His greatest
philosophical work was The Kuzari.

3. Rishonim
‫ראשונים‬
Maimonides
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Moshe ben Maimon (Hebrew: ‫מימון‬ ‫בן‬ ‫משה‬ Moshe ben Maymon), Moses Maimonides, a preeminent medieval Sephardic Jewish
philosopher and astronomer, became one of the most prolific and influential Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages. Born in
Cordova (present-day Spain), Almoravid Empire on Passover Eve, 1135 or 1138,he died in Egypton December 12, 1204, whence his
body was taken to the lower Galilee and buried in Tiberias. He worked as a rabbi,physician, and philosopher in Morocco and Egypt.

4. Rishonim
‫ראשונים‬
Yesod Olam (1777 edition), title page.
It treats of geometry and trigonometry as introductory to the
subject-matter; of the structure and position of the globe; of
the number and movements of the celestial spheres; of the
time differences in days and nights in the various parts of the
earth; of the movements of sun and moon; of the solstices, the
neomeniæ, the eclipses, and the leap-years; it contains as well
astronomical tables (an ephemeris) and a perpetual calendar. It
also deals (iv, § 17) with the chronological systems of other
nations and religions, especially Christianity; and gives (iv, § 18)
in chronological order the noted personages of the Biblical,
Talmudic, and geonic periods, following the Sefer ha-Qabbalah
ofAbraham ibn Daud. This last was included by Zacuto in his
Sefer ha-Yuḥasin.
Isaac Israeli ben Joseph or Yitzhak ben
Yosef (often known as Isaac Israeli the
Younger) was a Spanish-Jewish
astronomer/astrologer who flourished at
Toledo in the first half of the fourteenth
century. He was a pupil of Asher ben Yehiel,
at whose request (in 1310) he wrote the
astronomical work Yesod Olam, the best
contribution on that subject to Hebrew
literature.

5. Acharonim
‫אחרונים‬
When the Nazi extermination under Adolf Hitler advanced through Europe, men from the Slobodka and Chachmei Lublin
yeshivot journeyed Eastward towards the Far East to survive and flourish in Shanghai and in Kobe, Japan.
When it came time to observe Yom Kippur during the War years, (and the logic also follows for all the holidays and
Shabbat), the men of these yeshivot turned towards two Torah greats, Gedolei Hatorah, for guidance.
Avrohom Yeshaya
Karelitz, (7 November
1878 – 24 October 1953),
popularly known by the
name of his magnum
opus, Chazon Ish, was a
Belarusian born Orthodox
rabbi who later became
one of the leaders of
Haredi Judaism in Israel,
where his final 20 years,
from 1933 to 1953, were
spent.
Yechiel Michael
Tukachinsky
b. 27 December 1871
- March 31, 1955)
was head and
director of Yeshiva
"Etz Chaim", the
father of the “Eretz
Yisrael Calendar" and
the author of many
halachic books.

6. Rabbi Dr. Aharon Chaim Zimmerman (1914– march 9, 1995) (7th Adar
II 5755) was one of the leading rabbis of the Post-War generation. He
was the son of Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Zimmerman and nephew of Rabbi
Baruch Ber Lebowitz. He was born in Konotop, Ukraine, and studied
under a private tutor until his bar mitzva. He was known as a child
prodigy ("illui") and as a teen-ager attended the Kaminetz Yeshiva
headed by his uncle the renowned Rabbi Baruch Ber Lebowitz. He left
Russia at age 15 with his father and immigrated to the U.S., and taught
a Talmud class at RIETS. He received rabbinical ordination from
Rabbi Moshe Soloveitchik in 1939. His first published work "Binyan
Halakha" contains a letter of approbation from the Chief Rabbi of Eretz
Israel Rabbi Yitzchak Halevi Herzog attesting that the young author was
"fully knowledgeable in the entire Talmud Bavli and
Yerushalmi,Rishonim and Achronim."
He served as Rosh Yeshiva of Hebrew Theological College in Chicago
until 1964, and later a Rosh Yeshiva in New York City and in Jerusalem.
He immigrated to Israel in 1972. He died on march 9, 1995. (7th Adar II
5755)[1]
He published several books on Halacha and Philosophy. He was
renowned as a genius in Torah learning, and was also well versed in
mathematics, physics, and philosophy. In the early 1950s when
the halachic status of the 'international dateline' was the subject of
considerable debate, he published his best known work 'Agan HaSahar'.
Acharonim
‫אחרונים‬

7. The Medieval Globe Model of Earth

8. (Mouse over the slide for audio)

9. (Mouse over the slide for audio)

10. (Mouse over the picture)
At the bottom of this slide there is an audio
clip and a pointer that will explain this picture.
Mouse over the bottom to find and play the
clip.

11. (Mouse over the picture)

12. (Mouse over the picture)

13. (Mouse over the picture)