The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (307 page)

(Heb., ‘idolatrous worship’). Tractate of the
Mishnah
,
tosefta
, and
Talmud
, assigned to the order of ‘Nezikim’ (torts). It includes both
halakhic
and
aggadic
material, and deals with the laws concerning
idolatry
and relations with idol-worshippers.

 
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(Heb., ‘Fathers’). A treatise of the
Mishnah
placed at the end of the order of ‘Nezikim’. Often known as
Pirkei Avot
(the Chapters of the Fathers), it presents a series of sayings of the sages going back from the
tannaim
in an unbroken chain to
Moses'
revelation on Mount
Sinai
.

 
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(1620–82).
Archpriest of the Russian Church, leader, and eventually
martyr
, of the Raskolniki, or ‘
Old Believers
’. As
archpriest
of Our Lady of Kazan in Moscow, he opposed the liturgical reforms of
Patriarch
Nikon
, while establishing the ascetical and highly moral group of ‘The Old Believers’. For his opposition, he was exiled to Siberia in 1653. He returned on the death of Nikon (1664), but was again exiled, imprisoned, and punished for refusing the continuing reforms. Finally he and his companions were condemned to death at the stake. He wrote a fine autobiography.

 
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(P
li; Skt.,
avy
k
tavast
ni
, ‘that which cannot be expressed’). The four issues or questions on which the
Buddha
was pressed, but concerning which he remained silent. The silence was not because the questions are unanswerable, but because any answer would lead to a false sense of apprehension within the limits of his hearers' understanding.
See
Brahmaj
la Sutta
28; but it does not follow from that that he was agnostic. The true answers require insight which is itself a consequence of enlightenment or of considerable progress toward it.