Daniel Landes

Rabbi Daniel Landes is the Director of Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem and New York City.

Born in Chicago, Rav Landes studied in Chicago with Rabbi M.B. Sacks, the Menachem Tzion; in Israel with Reb Aryeh Levin, the Tzadik of Jerusalem, with the great mystic R. Zvi Yehudah Kook, and with the Chief Rabbi R. Avrum Shapiro. In New York Rav Landes studied with the Rav, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik; and in Los Angeles with the Av Beit Din R. Shmuel Katz (on whose rabbinical court he served).

Rabbi Landes was a founding Faculty member of The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles (Director of Education) and of Yeshiva of Los Angeles (The Van Lennop Chair of Social Ethics), as well as Adjunct Associate Professor of Law at Loyola Law School. He was Rabbi of the Upstairs Minyan which he merged with the renewed Congregation Bnai David Judea – a center for spirituality, intellectual ferment and social action. He has taught for the Wexner Foundation for over 20 years.

Rabbi Landes came to Pardes in 1995 as Director and has been active in creation of advanced Talmud classes, Bekiut Talmud, the Fellows, PEP, the Kollel, the Executive Seminar Programs, the annual Blaustein and Brettler Scholar Series, Pardes USA and strengthening of the Pardes Beit Midrash. He is an exponent of Jewish Unity and also was the first Rabbi to be invited by Indonesia to speak publicly (at the Forum of Religions). He and his wife Sheryl Robbin, a social worker and author, write on Biblical and ethical issues.

Daniel

Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew origin. It means, "God is my judge", and derives from two early biblical figures, primary among them Daniel from the Book of Daniel. It is a common given name for males, and is also used as a surname. It is also the basis for various derived given names and surnames.

Background

The name evolved into over 100 different spellings in countries around the world. Nicknames (Dan, Danny) are common in both English and Hebrew, although in some instances "Dan" may be a complete given name rather than a nickname. The name "Daniil" (Даниил) is common in Russia. Feminine versions (Danielle, Daniela, Daniella, Dani, Danitza) are prevalent as well. The Dutch names "Daan" and "Daniël" are also variations of Daniel. A related surname developed as a patronymic, Daniels. Other surnames derived from "Daniel" include McDaniel and Danielson.

In the United States, the U.S. Social Security Administration reports that Daniel has peaked as the fifth most popular name for newborns in 1985, 1990, 2007, and 2008. The U.S. Census Bureau reported that in the 2000 census, "Daniels" was the 182nd most common surname in the U.S., while "McDaniel" was ranked at 323, and "Daniel" (without a final "s") was ranked at 380.

Piano sonata

A piano sonata is a sonata written for a solo piano. Piano sonatas are usually written in three or four movements, although some piano sonatas have been written with a single movement (Scarlatti, Scriabin, Medtner), two movements (Haydn), five (Brahms' Third Piano Sonata) or even more movements. The first movement is generally composed in sonata form.

The Baroque keyboard sonata

In the Baroque era, the use of the term "sonata" generally referred to either the sonata da chiesa (church sonata) or sonata da camera (chamber sonata), both of which were sonatas for various instruments (usually one or more violins plus basso continuo). The keyboard sonata was relatively neglected by most composers.

The sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti (of which there are over 500) were the hallmark of the Baroque keyboard sonata, though they were for the most part unpublished during Scarlatti's lifetime. The majority of these sonatas are in one-movement binary form, both sections being in the same tempo and utilizing the same thematic material. These sonatas are prized for both their technical difficulty and their musical and formal ingenuity. The influence of Spanish folk music is evident in Scarlatti's sonatas.

Landes

Landes, or Lanas in Gascon, means moorland or heath. Landes and Lanas come from the Latin plānus meaning “‘flat, even, level, plain’”. They are therefore cognate with the English plain (and plane), the Spanish word llanos and the Italian word piano.

Places

People

People with the surname Landes include:

Abraham Isaac Kook

Abraham Isaac Kook (1865–1935) was the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the British Mandatory Palestine, the founder of Yeshiva Mercaz HaRav Kook (The Central Universal Yeshiva), Jewish thinker, Halakhist, Kabbalist and a renowned Torah scholar. He is known in Hebrew as הרב אברהם יצחק הכהן קוק HaRav Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook, and by the acronym הראיה (HaRaAYaH), or simply as "HaRav." He was one of the most celebrated and influential rabbis of the 20th century.

Biography

Rav Kook was born in Grīva in the Courland Governorate of the Russian Empire in 1865, today a part of Daugavpils, Latvia, the oldest of eight children. His father, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Ha-Cohen Kook, was a student of the Volozhin yeshiva, the "mother of the Lithuanian yeshivas", whereas his maternal grandfather was an avid follower of the Kapust branch of the Hassidic movement, founded by the son of the great Rabbi of Chabad, the "Tzemach Tzedek," known also as Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn of Lubavitch.