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

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Lamdan has also been adopted as a Jewish surname, see:

References

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  •   This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainSinger, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "Lamden". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
  1. ^ Resp. "Keneset Yechezkel," Choshen Mishpat, No. 95, p. 118a, Altona, 1732
  2. ^ "Megillat Sefer," p. 21, Warsaw, 1896
  3. ^ see Joshua Falk ha-Kohen in "Sefer Me'irat 'Enayim," Choshen Mishpat, 15, 4; Shabbethai ha-Kohen, ib. 1, 19, and Yoreh De'ah, 244, 11