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edrehi, moses ben isaac
salem (Ps. 137:7; Obad. 11) and even in that of the Temple itself
(Obad. 16). In consequence, during the Second Temple
period there spread a belief that it was actually the Edomites
who burned the First Temple (I Esdras 4:45; Ethiopian Enoch
89:66), and also interfered with the building of the Second
Temple (ibid., 72). Hence the intense enmity toward Edom
which grew stronger in the course of time (Ecclus. 50:25–26),
until the conquest of Edom and its conversion to Judaism in
the time of John Hyrcanus – a conquest which is the background
to the descriptions of the wars of Jacob and his sons
with Esau and his sons in the Book of Jubilees (37–38) and in
the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs (Judah 9). Edom is
even compared to a black boar (I En. 89:12, 42–43, 49, 66; Jub.
37:20, 24). The intense hatred of Rome after the cruel crushing
of the revolt of the Diaspora in the time of Trajan and still
more after the harsh suppression of the Bar Kokhba revolt
and the decrees of persecution in Hadrian’s days; the fact that
Rome, like Edom, had destroyed the Temple; the similarity of
Edom, compared to a pig, with Rome, for whom the pig (or,
more correctly, the sow) was a most important symbol; the
allusions to Edom dwelling on high like an eagle and the fact
that the eagle, too, was an important Roman symbol; and perhaps
finally even the similarity to the name Rome and Romans
in several verses that speak of Edom, Seir, and Esau – all these
apparently combined to cause the application to Rome of the
biblical references to Edom, the eternal enemy of Israel.
At the end of the tannaitic period, and still more in the
amoraic, the identification became very widespread, and the
overwhelming majority of homilies about Edom speak explicitly
of Rome. Thus it was stated that Rome was founded
by the children of Esau, and Rome was identified as one of
the cities of the chiefs of Esau enumerated at the end of Genesis
36 (these identifications occur not only in the Midrashim
and the Talmuds but also in the Palestinian *Targums of the
Torah and in the Targums to Lamentations and Esther). At
a still later period the term became a synonym for Christian
Rome and thence for Christianity in general, and allusions
were even found to *Constantinople among the cities of Edom
(and see *Caesarea).
[Moshe David Herr / Carl Stephen Ehrlich (2nd ed.)]
Bibliography: F. Buhl, Geschichte der Edomiter (1893); M.
Noth, Das System der Zwoelf Staemme Israels (1930); N. Glueck, The
Other Side of the Jordan (1940); R.H. Pfeiffer, Introduction to the Old
Testament (19522), 159–67 (on the S. Document); S. Abramsky, Mesillah
ba-Aravah (1959); J. Liver (ed.), in: Historyah Ẓeva’it shel Ereẓ
Yisrael… (1964), 190–205; S. Herrmann, in: Fourth World Congress
of Jewish Studies, Papers, 1 (1967), 213–6 (Ger.); Y. Aharoni, in: Eretz
Israel, 9 (1969), 10–21 (Heb. pt.), 134 (Eng. summ.). SECOND TEM-
PLE PERIOD: Klausner, Bayit Sheni, index; S. Klein, Ereẓ Yehudah
(1939), 249–54. IN THE AGGADAH: M. Gruenbaum, in: zdmg, 31
(1877), 305–9; A. Epstein, Kol Kitvei, ed. A.M. Habermann, 2 (1957),
33; Ginzberg, Legends, 5 (19476), 272–3; Schuerer, Hist, 3 (19094),
320–11; I. Heinemann, Darkhei ha-Aggadah (1954[2]), index, S.V.
Esau; H. Fuchs, Der geistige Widerstand gegen Rom (19642), 69ff.,
78. Add. Bibliography: A. Kasher, Jews, Idumeans, and Ancient
Arabs (1988).
EDREHI (Heb. יערדא), MOSES BEN ISAAC (c. 1774–
c. 1842), Moroccan scholar. Edrehi was born in *Agadir, Morocco,
but when the Jews were expelled from that city Moses,
while still a boy, was taken with his parents to *Mogador, and
after 1784 to Rabat. He began to preach in public at the age
of 14, and became an itinerant preacher in North Africa. In
1791 he reached London, where he studied for a time in the
bet ha-midrash Eẓ Ḥayyim and was accustomed to preach every
Sabbath. In 1792 he published his Torat Ḥayyim readings
for Friday nights according to the custom of the Jews of Morocco.
In 1802 he proceeded to Amsterdam, where he published
his Yad Moshe (1809), consisting of sermons preached
in various places; and Ma‘aseh Nissim (1818), tales of the ten
tribes, with a Yiddish translation. An English edition of this
somewhat preposterous work was published in London in
1834 under the title, Book of Miracles… With… an Account
of Many Millions of Israelitical Children… Dwelling Beyond
that River, later expanded as An Historical Account of the Ten
Tribes Settled Beyond the River Sambatyon in the East (1836)
which was prefaced by letters of commendation from Dutch,
French, and English scholars and clergymen. About 1829 he
met the writer John Wilson (“Christopher North”) in Edinburgh
who described him in his series Noctes Ambrosianae
in Blackwood’s Magazine. Edrehi finally left for Ereẓ Israel,
traveling by way of France, Italy, Malta, and Smyrna and taking
four years on the journey. While in *Izmir in 1841, his belongings
and manuscripts – among them a grammar of the
French and English language with a translation in Spanish –
were destroyed by fire. In 1842 he published in *Jerusalem the
Azharot of Isaac b. Reuben *al-Bargeloni. After his death his
son Isaac published his History of the Capital of Asia and the
Turks, together with an Account of the Domestic Manners of
the Turks in Turkey, 3 vols. (1855).
Bibliography: Slouschz, in: Revue du Monde Musulman, 7
(1909), 53–68; J.M. Toledano, Sarid u-Falit, 1 (1945), 79–80; A.M. Hyamson,
Sephardim of England (1951), 263; Yaari, in: KS, 33 (1957/58),
521–8; 35 (1959/60), 269–72; Raphael, ibid., 34 (1958/59), 526–7; Roth,
Mag Bibl, index.
EDREI (Heb. יעֶ ִרְ
דֶ א).
(1) A biblical town in Transjordan. It may be recorded
among the towns captured by Thutmosis III in c. 1469 B.C.E.,
but that reference may be to (2) below. In all likelihood the
toponym is found in Ugaritic (KTU 1.108:3). It is first mentioned
in the Bible as the city of *Og, king of Bashan, whom
Moses and the Israelites defeated before entering Canaan
(Num. 21:33; Deut. 1:4; 3:1; Josh. 12:4; 13:12). Og’s lands were
allotted to the half-tribe of *Manasseh (Num. 32:33ff.; Josh.
12:6; 13:7–12, 29–31; cf. Deut. 3:5; I Kings 4:13). In Roman
times, as Adraene, it was a well-known town in Provincia Arabia,
located on the highway leading from Bozrah to Bet Reshah
(Capitolias) 24 mi. (40 km.) from the former and 16 mi.
(26 km.) from the latter. Edrei contained a Jewish community
up to the 14th century. It is identified with the modern town
of Darʿā in Syria, near the Jordanian border, 1,887 ft. (575 m.)
158 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6