Lamdan (
Hebrew: למדן) is a late
Hebrew expression for a man who is well informed in
rabbinical literature, although not a scholar in the technical sense of the term - i.e. "
talmid hakham"; it does not seem to have been used before the 18th century.
Ezekiel Katzenellenbogen (1670-1749) decided that rabbinical scholars were exempt from paying
taxes even though scholars then were not scholars in the proper sense of the word, "for the law does not make a difference between lamdan and lamdan".[1]
Jacob Emden[2] speaks of
Baer Kohen (Berent Salomon), the founder of the Klaus in
Hamburg, as having been somewhat of a scholar ("ketzat lamdan," the equivalent of the
Yiddish "ein stückel lamden").
Authorities of the sixteenth century, when they have to speak of the difference between a scholar in the technical sense of the word and a well-informed man, do not use the term "lamdan," but say "tzurba me-rabbanan", צורְבָא מֵרָבּנן, literally "enflamed from
Rabbinic literature".[3]
People
Lamdan has also been adopted as a Jewish surname, see:
Lamdan (
Hebrew: למדן) is a late
Hebrew expression for a man who is well informed in
rabbinical literature, although not a scholar in the technical sense of the term - i.e. "
talmid hakham"; it does not seem to have been used before the 18th century.
Ezekiel Katzenellenbogen (1670-1749) decided that rabbinical scholars were exempt from paying
taxes even though scholars then were not scholars in the proper sense of the word, "for the law does not make a difference between lamdan and lamdan".[1]
Jacob Emden[2] speaks of
Baer Kohen (Berent Salomon), the founder of the Klaus in
Hamburg, as having been somewhat of a scholar ("ketzat lamdan," the equivalent of the
Yiddish "ein stückel lamden").
Authorities of the sixteenth century, when they have to speak of the difference between a scholar in the technical sense of the word and a well-informed man, do not use the term "lamdan," but say "tzurba me-rabbanan", צורְבָא מֵרָבּנן, literally "enflamed from
Rabbinic literature".[3]
People
Lamdan has also been adopted as a Jewish surname, see: