The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1369 page)

Letter mysticism
:

see
GEMATRIA
.

 
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see
WOMEN
.

 
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Levi
.

Third son of
Jacob
and Leah and ancestor of the Jewish tribe of Levi. During the period of the monarchy, the Levites became state officials in their administration of the cult; they became eventually the Temple singers.

 
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Leviathan
.

A large sea animal. In the Hebrew scriptures, the leviathan frequently represents the forces of chaos which are opposed to God.

 
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Levi ben Gershom, Ralbag
,
or Gersonides

(1288–1344).
Jewish philosopher and Bible commentator. He was an eminent
Talmudist
who wrote a commentary on
Berakhot
(now lost) and probably a commentary on the thirteen
hermeneutical
rules of R.
Ishmael
(publ. 1800). He wrote several commentaries on Averroes’ paraphrases and commentaries on Aristotle and on the Bible. His major philosophical work was the
Sefer Milhamot Adonai
(The Book of the Wars of the Lord), written between 1317 and 1329. Divided into six parts, it deals with the immortality of the
soul
,
prophecy
, divine knowledge, providence, the celestial spheres, and creation.

 
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(
c.
1740–1810).
Jewish
asidic
zaddik
. Levi Isaac was a pupil of
Dov Baer
. He emerged as a Zaddik in the town of Zelechow, but was driven from there and from Pinsk by the
mitnaggedim
. Finally he moved to Berdichev in 1785 where he lived until his death. He was recognized as a major
asidic leader of his time and became a popular hero in Jewish fiction and poetry, in which he is regarded as an advocate for Israel before God. He wrote a two-part work,
Kedushat Levi
, which expounds
asidic teaching in the form of a commentary mainly on
Torah
.