in the Jewish customs, is used to signify separated or excommunicated. This, according to some, was to be understood only of the lesser sort of excommunication in use amongst the Hebrews. He who had incurred it was obliged to withdraw himself from his relations, at least to the distance of four cubits; and it commonly continued a month. If it was not removed in that time, it might be prolonged for sixty or even ninety days; but if, within that term, the excommunicated person did not give satisfaction, he fell into the cherem, which was a second sort of excommunication; and thence into the third sort, called shammata or shematta, the most terrible of all. But Selden has proved that there were only two kinds of excommunication, the greater and less; and that these three terms were used indifferently.