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anet, naphtali ben mordecai
by Shalom Mordecai ha-Kohen), on the main categories of
work forbidden on the Sabbath; Har ha-Mor (Prague, 1861), responsa,
published together with the Hokhmat Shelomo of Solomon
Kwetsch, his pupil; Parashat Mordekhai (1889), responsa
on the Shulḥan Arukh, together with notes by the publisher,
Abraham Isaac Glueck; Tekhelet Mordekhai (1892), aggadic
homilies and talmudic novellae, also containing a biography
of the author; Maḥashevet Mordekhai (1902), aggadic novellae
to the Pentateuch; Sefer Maharam Banet (also called Divrei
Mordekhai; 1906), novellae on aspects of the dietary laws with
notes by the publisher Abraham Jungreisz.
Bibliography: R. Ferber, Pe’er Mordekhai (1951); R. Kestenberg-Gladstein,
Neuere Geschichte der Juden in den boehmischen
Laendern, 1 (1969), index S.V. Benet; B. Mevorakh, in: Ẓion, 34 (1969),
208ff.
[Moshe Nahum Zobel]
BANET (Benet), NAPHTALI BEN MORDECAI (1789–
1857), Moravian rabbi and author, third son of Mordecai
*Banet. Banet officiated as rabbi and principal of the yeshivah
in Safov (Schaffa, Moravia) from 1836 to 1857. He enjoined
a fast and a penitential prayer to be recited on the 24th
of Sivan in memory of the great conflagration of 1822 which
almost destroyed the entire Jewish quarter of Schaffa; the
custom was adhered to by the community until the Holocaust.
Banet’s writings include Berit Melaḥ on meliḥah (salting)
laws (Prague, 1816); Emunat Yisrael, a catechism of the fundamentals
of Judaism for Jewish youth, in Hebrew and German
(ibid., 1832); Torat Dat Moshe ve-Yisrael, on the principles
of Judaism, in Hebrew and German (ibid., 1826). The latter
were intended to serve as a substitute for Herz Homberg’s
catechism Benei Ẓiyyon and expressed a conservative point
of view.
Bibliography: A. Walden, Sefer Shem ha-Gedolim he-
Ḥadash (1870), pt. 2, 8a, no. 97; D. Feuchtwang, in: Festschrift Adolf
Schwarz (1917), 550; E. Faerber, Pe’er Mordekhai (1951), 55–58; B. Mevorakh,
in: Zion, 34 (1969), 208ff.
[Moshe Nahum Zobel]
BANETH, family of scholars. EDUARD EZEKIEL BANETH
(1855–1930), talmudic scholar, was a descendant of the wellknown
*Banet family of rabbis and scholars. He was born in
Liptó-Szent-Miklós (Slovakia). From 1882 to 1895 he served
as rabbi at Krotoszyn (near Poznan) and then as lecturer of
Talmud at the Lehranstalt fuer die Wissenschaft des Judentums
in Berlin. In 1919 the Prussian Ministry of Education
awarded him the title of professor. Baneth’s work was devoted
mainly to talmudic and rabbinic literature, the development
of halakhah, and the Jewish calendar. Among his published
works are Ursprung der Sadokaeer und Boethosaeer (1882);
Maimunis Neumondberechnung (4 vols., 1898–1903); Der Sederabend
(1904); Avot mit Maimunis arabischem Kommentar
(1905); Maimonides als Chronologe und Astronom (1914);
Soziale Motive in der rabbinischen Rechtspflege (1922); Bilder
talmudischer Ethik (1926); and Der juedische und buergerliche
Kalender (1928). Baneth also contributed to the Samter-Hoffmann
German translation and commentary of the Mishnah
(order of Mo’ed, 19272).
His son DAVID HARTWIG (ZVI; 1893–1973) was an
Arabist. Born in Krotoszyn, from 1920 to 1924 he was an assistant
at the Akademie fuer die Wissenschaft des Judentums.
He then went to Palestine where he was a lecturer at the Hebrew
University on Arabic philosophy, language, and literature.
From 1946 he was professor of Arabic language and literature.
In his earlier years David made important contributions
to ancient Aramaic and Canaanite studies, but his life’s work
consisted in the study of Jewish thought as expressed in Arabic,
Arabic as used by Jews, and medieval Hebrew. He wrote
on the enigmatic Jewish rationalist *Ibn Kammuna (MGWJ,
vol. 69, 1925), on the relationship between *Judah Halevi and
the Muslim theologian *Ghazali (Korrespondenzblatt, vol. 5,
1929; see also Keneset, vol. 7, 1942), and on the use made by
both Ghazali and the Jewish pietist Baḥya ibn Paquda of a
passage in a book by a Christian author (Magnes Jubilee Volume,
1938).
Baneth was at his best in the editing and criticism of
texts, such as his edition of Maimonides’ letters (Iggerot ha-
Rambam, 1946), his revisions of Maimonides’ Terminology of
Logic (edited by L. Roth, 1935) and of the Book of Beatitude,
ascribed to Maimonides (prepared for publication by H.S. Davidowitz,
1939), as well as his discussion of the Hebrew translations
of Maimonides’ treatise on resurrection (Tarbiz, vol.
11, 1939/40, and vol. 13, 1941/42) and of Maimonides’ Hebrew
usage (Tarbiz, vol. 6, 1934/35 and vol. 23, 1951/52). He published
many detailed reviews of Judeo-Arabic works in Kirjath
Sepher. Of particular importance are Baneth’s studies of
the language and contents of the Cairo Genizah documents
(cf. S. Shaked, A Tentative Bibliography of Geniza Documents
(1964), 268–9). Most of the Arabic Genizah texts published
by S. *Assaf were prepared for publication and translated into
Hebrew by Baneth. By emphasizing that most deviations from
classical Arabic grammar in the Genizah documents were not
“mistakes,” but represented the living language of the period,
Baneth pointed the way for a sound approach to the understanding
of those medieval writings.
[Moshe David Herr / Shelomo Dov Goitein /
Samuel Miklos Stern]
BANETH (Benet, Paneth), EZEKIEL BEN JACOB (1773–
1854), rabbi, born in Alt-Ofen (Budapest), Hungary. In 1810
Ezekiel was appointed rabbi of Szecseny. He became rabbi of
*Paks in 1825 and subsequently of *Balassagyarmat, and from
1847 officiated at Nyitra. He corresponded on halakhic matters
with Moses Sofer, Judah Aszód, and other rabbis. His
yeshivah was attended by pupils from various parts of the
country. One of his most talented students was his youngest
son Jerachmeel Bernhard (1815–1871), rabbi of Liptoszentmiklos
(Liptovsky Svaty Mikulas). Ezekiel was also an eloquent
preacher. Recognized by his contemporaries as a halakhic
authority, he left no written work, having destroyed his com-
108 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3