Aaron
son of Amram (tribe of Levi), elder brother of Moses, and divinely appointed to be his spokesman in the embassy to the court of Pharaoh. By the same authority, avouched in the budding of his rod, he was chosen the first highpriest. He was recreant to his trust the absence of Moses upon the Mount, and made the golden calf for the people to worship. He died on Mount Hor in the 123d year of his age; and the highpriesthood descended to his third son, Eleazar.
Aaron's rod, in archæology, is a rod like that of Mercury, but with only one serpent, instead of two, twined around it.
AB, the eleventh month of the civil year of the Hebrews, and the fifth of their ecclesiastical year. It corresponds to part of our month of July and to the beginning of August; it consists of 30 days. The first and ninth days are fast days, commemorating respectively the death of Aaron and the destruction of the first and second temples. 1-Vol. I-Cyc ABBAS