OLIVEYRA, SALOMON DI, a distinguished Hebrew poet and grammarian, and chief Rabbi of the Portuguese Jews in Amsterdam, was born circa 1640. He mastered the Hebrew language and wrote synagogual poetry when very young ; which together with his extensive learning secured for him a high position in the community. He first succeeded Moses Raphael de Aguilar as teacher in the Kelket Tore (min -Inn), and was elected in 1674 to the dignity of Chatham in the institution denominated Gemiluth Chassadim vinn where he de livered expositions on the Pentateuch between 1674 and 1678, and on the historic and poetic books be tween 1678 and 1682. He then founded a Rabbinic college, of which he became the president, March 1693, and laboured most industriously and success fully to advance the cause of Hebrew philology. His grammatical and lexicographical contributions are as follow :—(i.) A treatise on the Hebrew accents, entitled wnvun 'D 1L?, The Reasons for the Accents, in which he discourses especially on the poetical accents of Job, Proverbs, and the Psalms, published with the Pentateuch and the Haphtaroth, Amsterdam 1665 ; then again, ibid.,
1670, 1689, and 1732. (2.) A lexicon on Hebrew assonance, entitled rin) T1V1V1, A Chain of minations, Amsterdam 1665. (3.) A treatise on Hebrew rhetoric, called tnnt.t r& N, The Lovely Hind, Amsterdam 1665. (4.) A Hebrew Chal daic and Portuguese lexicon, called ?"n The Tree of Life, Amsterdam 1682. (5.) A Portu guese and Hebrew vocabulary, called r3110, A Tree with many Branches, with additions to the preceding work, Amsterdam 1683. (6.) Portuguese translation of the words which fre quently occur in the Mishna and Gemara, and of the technical expressions, entitled pri Irt, The Green Olive, Amsterdam 1683. And (7.) Livro da Grammatica Hebrayca e Chaldayca, entitled 11, A manual to the Language, and Door of the Lips, Amsterdam 1688. Oliveyra died in May 1708 (comp. Steinschneider, Catalogus Libr. Hebr. in Bibliotheca Bodleiana, col. 2379-2383 ; Fiirst, Bibliotheca 5'udaica, 46, etc. ; Frankel, Monatschrift far Geschichte and Wissenschaft des Yudenthums, Breslau 1861, vol. x., p. 432-436).—C. D. G.