Cherem, Anathema. Niddui.CHEREM, Anathema. The Hebrews distinguish three sorts of Excommunications. The first is Niddui, Separation, the lesser Excommunication. The second is Cherem, the greater Excommunication, or 5 H Ana- שמחהSchammathab. Anathema; and the third Shammathah, to which the punishment of Death is annexed1. The Cherem, whereof we are here speaking, deprives the excommunicated person of most of the Advantages belonging to civil Society. He can have no Commerce with any one, he can neither buy nor sell, except such things as are absolutely necessary to Life, nor resort to the Schools, nor enter the Synagogues. No one is permitted to eat or drink with him. The Sentence of Cherem was to be pronounced by ten persons only, or at least in the presence of ten persons. But the excommunicated person might be absolved by three Judges, or even by one, provided he were a Doctor of the Law. The form of Excommunication was loaded with a multitude of Curses and Imprecations, taken from different places of the Scripture. See Bartolocci’s Bibl. Rabbin. t. 3. Selden de Synedriis, l. i. Basnage’s History of the Jews, t. 5. l. vii. c. 20. Edit. Paris. &c. See Anathema and Excommunication.
Read this article in its place on the printed pages
Footnotes
-
Translators’ note. Cherem and Shammathah in the antient signification of the words, implied Sentence of Death, and total Destruction, inflicted either by the People when victorious, or by Decree of the Senate. God ordains that he who sacrifices to strange Gods, shall be Cherem*; that is to say, shall be punished with Death, or as* the Spanish Jews have translated it Sera destruido, Histoire des Juifs*, l. vi. c. 21*. ↩