Analysis of stakes of the contemporary world and possible evolutions to envisage future developments.

Analysis and creation of projects

Get ready see you tomorrow today and make good strategical decisions.

----------

Coming from a Jewish family in the shul of Kalish (Poland), my Grandfather, although having little information on this subject, knew 7 languages including Yiddish.

----------

Hakham (Hebrew: חכם "wise", also transcribed chakam, haham, hacham, plural hakhamim) is a term for a cultured and educated person, whether Jewish or not. The term is not generally used in post-Talmudic rabbinical Judaism, which prefers the term rav to designate a man versed in the Torah. On the other hand, it is abundantly used in Karaism, a scripturalist Jewish movement, opposed to rabbinic Judaism.

The Hakham in the Hebrew Bible and the Literature of the Sages The term hakham designates in the five Books of the Torah a person who, acquiring or having acquired knowledge, in a general or particular field, often plays the role of expert with men and adviser to the powerful. It is applied equally to Israelites and non-Israelites2, to men and women3 and does not necessarily have any connotation linked to the intellect, which could designate a skilled craftsman in his art4.

However, from the Nevi'im and even more from the Ketuvim, the hochma designates more an understanding of the ways of the world, and the hakham is a person versed in this more particular field. It is also this meaning covered by the term hakham in the Talmudic and Midrashic literatures. It can be used there to designate indefinitely the hakhamim representing the anonymous majority of doctors of the Law, equivalent to the Judeo-Aramaic rabbanan .

He may also designate an official academic dignitary. In this sense, Ḥakham is already employed at the time of the first Sanhedrin, after the end of the persecutions of the Emperor Hadrian and the reconstruction of this assembly; alongside Shimon ben Gamliel, Nassi (president of this assembly) stand Rabbi Nathan, as av beit din (vice-president of the Sanhedrin) and Rabbi Meïr, who is the ḥakham5. Similarly, Rabbi Shimon beRabbi officiates as a hakham alongside his brother, Nassi Gamaliel III6. He is generally one of the most eminent doctors of his generation and, according to a baraita (oral tradition not included in the Mishna), the hakham is always chosen from among the directors of a private house of study7 , satellite of the Great Sanhedrin.

the functions held by the hakham are uncertain. It is unlikely that he was an arbiter of religious permission and prohibition, as S.J.L. Rapoport or that he had, as Zecharias Frankel thinks, had the task of considering a case from all angles before submitting it to discussion. According to Schechter and Ginzberg, the office was created to help obtain a majority in disputes between the Nassi and the av beit din in matters of the Sanhedrin. Equally uncertain are the length of time the hakham held office and the origin of the institution. Frankel claims, without sufficient evidence, that Rabbi Yehoshua ben Hananiah (early 2nd century) was the first hakham. On the other hand, it seems established that the position remained as long as there was an academy of Nassi8, and that there was no equivalent in Babylonia, the relationship between the exilarch and the academic directors being totally different from what he was in the land of Israel.

In the Babylonian Talmud, the hakham is a doctor of the Law who mainly studies oral traditions, while the sofer and the kara are more interested in the Bible9. However, according to the Seder Olam Zoutta, if there was no hakham in the academies, the exilarch secured the services of a hakham10, who probably advised him in religious matters. Nevertheless, the Seder Olam Zoutta having been written in the land of Israel, it is possible that the author transposed local customs and institutions to Babylonia.

The Hakham in Rabbinic Judaism The term hakham does not appear to have been commonly used in rabbinic Judaism (unlike that of talmid hakham). Solomon ben Adret begins several of his responsa with le-ḥakam Rabbi ...12, but it is not certain that this is a title. In Muslim countries, al-Rab being one of the 99 names of Allah, the title of Rav could have been interpreted as blasphemy, and was replaced by that of hakham. The Chief Rabbi of the Ottoman Empire was also called the Hakham Baši.