The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (254 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
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Articles of faith
(
ikkarim
, Heb., ‘roots’). Formulations of Jewish belief. These are not as important as are
creeds
in Christianity, since every person born of a Jewish mother is automatically a Jew irrespective of religious conviction. The
Shema
‘, recited twice daily, is the fundamental Jewish article of faith.
Philo
spoke of eight basic principles, Hananel b. Hushi’el isolated four articles, and
Maimonides
set down thirteen
principles
. These became the basis of later formulations, including
ani ma’amin
of the Prayer Book, the ‘ikkarim’ of David Kokhavi, Hasdai
Crescas

’Or Adonai
(Light of the Lord), and Joseph
Albo's
Sefer haIkkarim
(Book of Roots). In the 12th cent., the
Karaite
Judah Hadassi produced ten articles of faith, and in the 19th cent., Moses
Mendelssohn
, the pioneer of modernism within Judaism, identified three essential principles.
Articles, Thirty-Nine
:
Aru
cala
(Skt., ‘red mountain’). A holy mountain in Tamil Nadu, S. India, at whose foot lies the Arun
calasvara temple dedicated to
iva
.
Ar
padhatu
:
see
LOKA
.

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