Abrabanel, of Avravanel, Isaac, a celebrated rabbi, descended from King David, and born at Lisbon A.D. 1437. He became councillor to Alphonso V. king of Portugal, and afterwards to Ferdinand the Catholic; but in 1492 was obliged to leave Spain with the other Jews. In short, after residing at Naples, Corfu, and several other cities, he died at Venice in 1508, aged 71. Abrabanel passed for one of the most learned of the rabbis; and the Jews gave him the names of the Sage, the Prince, and the Great Politician. We have a commentary of his on all the Old Testament, which is pretty scarce: he there principally adheres to the literal sense; and his style is clear, but a little diffuse. His other works are, A Treatise on the Creation of the World; in which he refutes Aristotle, who imagined, that the world was eternal: A Treatise on the Explication of the Prophecies. Abracadabra was a magical word, recommended by Serenus Samonicus as an antidote against agues and several other diseases. It was to be written upon a piece of paper as many times as the word contains letters, omitting the last letter of the former every time, as in the margin †, and repeated in the same order; and then fastened about the neck by a linen thread. Abracadabra was the name of a god worshipped by the Syrians; so wearing his name was a sort of invocation of his aid; a practice which, though not more useful, yet was less irrational, than is the equally heathenish practice among those who call themselves Christians, of wearing various things, in expectation of their operating by a sympathy, whose parents were Ignorance and Superstition.