The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1125 page)

Jabriy(y)a
(Muslim sect emphasizing God's control)
:

see
QADAR
.

 
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(Heb., Ya‘akov). Third Hebrew
patriarch
. Jacob was the younger twin son (with
Esau
) of
Isaac
and Rebekah. In the
aggadah,
the story of Jacob is understood as symbolic of the later history of the Jews—so Esau struggling with Jacob in their mother's womb is interpreted as the conflict between Rome and Israel (e.g.
Gen.R.
63. 8).

 
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(
c.
1270–1340).
Jewish
halakhic
authority. Jacob was the son of
Asher b. Je
iel
. Working in poverty in Toledo, he compiled his halakhic masterpiece the
Arba‘ah Turim
(Four Rows, 1475). The
Turim
is divided into four parts:

(i) Ora
ayyim (The Path of Life), the laws concerning religious life through the whole day, including conduct in
synagogue
and on fast and festival days;
(ii) 
Yoreh De’ah
(The Teaching of Knowledge), on
issur ve-hetter
, including food, family, mourning, usury, oaths;
(iii) 
Even ha-Ezer
(The Stone of Help), on women, marriage, and divorce;
(iv) 
oshen Mishpat
(The Breastplate of Judgement), civil law. The work went through many edns., evoking commentaries and epitomes

.

 
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(
c.
1710–84)
,
asidic
teacher and author, known as Toledot (from his book
Toledot Ya‘akov Yosef
, ‘The Generations of Jacob Joseph’, 1780). Already a rabbi, he met and became a disciple of Ba‘al Shem Tov (
Israel ben Eliezer
) when he was about 35. He became a
zaddik
, understanding the zaddik as ‘the soul of the world’. His other major works (alluding to
Joseph
in the title) were
Ben Porat Yosef
(‘Joseph is a Fruitful Vine’, 1781),
Tzafenat Pane’ah
(the name given to Joseph by Pharaoh in Genesis 41. 45, 1782), and
Ketonat Passim
(‘Coat of Many Colours’, pub. 1866).

 
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