JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

in 1964–66 as head of the Operations Branch in the General
Staff, after which he went to Paris to study political science.
He was recalled the following year, however, and appointed
deputy chief of staff on the eve of the Six-Day War. In 1968–72
he served as chief of staff. In this period the Bar-Lev Line was
constructed as Israel’s defensive system along the Suez Canal
– a system which collapsed in the first days of the Yom
Kippur War, largely due to complacency. In the course of the
Yom Kippur War Bar-Lev was recalled to active service as
commander of the front with Egypt.
Even though he was not elected to the Eighth Knesset,
Bar-Lev was appointed by Golda *Meir as minister of commerce
and industry and development in the government she
formed in March 1974 – a post he continued to hold under
Yitzhak *Rabin. Bar-Lev was elected on the Alignment list to
the Ninth Knesset, and after the Alignment’s electoral defeat
was appointed secretary general of the Labor Party – a position
he held until 1984. In this period he acted together with
Party Chairman Shimon *Peres to rehabilitate the party’s organization
and finances. In the National Unity Government
of 1984–90 Bar-Lev served as minister of police. In 1992, following
the resumption of diplomatic relations with Russia,
Bar-Lev was appointed Israeli ambassador, a position he held
until his death.
Bibliography: K. Guy, Bar-Lev (1998).
[Susan Hattis Rolef (2nd ed.)]
BARLEY (Heb. הרָוע ֹ ׂש; ְ se’orah), one of the seven species (see
*Food) with which Ereẓ Israel was blessed (Deut. 8:8). In biblical
times barley bread was a staple food and was extensively
cultivated, especially as it grows even in poor soil and in areas
with a low rainfall. The fact that barley was so widely sown
accounts for the biblical ruling that the value of a field is to
be estimated on the basis of the amount of barley required
to sow it (Lev. 27:16). In the days of the Judges the farmer in
Ereẓ Israel sustained himself mainly on barley, a cake of barley
bread symbolizing the agricultural Israelites (in contrast to
the nomadic Midianites) in the dream of the Midianite soldier
(Judg. 7:13). It formed part of the diet of David’s army (II Sam.
17:28) and also of the hewers of the timber in Lebanon for the
Temple of Solomon (II Chron. 2:9).
In mishnaic times wheat largely replaced barley as human
food, and barley was used mainly as animal fodder (it is
referred to in this connection only once in the Bible (I Kings
5:8)) and the rabbis, therefore, in a homiletical view, give as the
reason for the offering of barley meal in the ordeal of a woman
suspected of adultery (Lev. 5:15) “that she had behaved like
an animal” (Num. 5:15; cf. Sot. 9a). It became principally the
poor man’s food; hence the proverb, “Why do you eat barley
bread? – Because I have no wheaten bread” (Sif. Num. 49). In
the Bible the price of barley flour is given as half that of fine
wheaten flour (II Kings 7:1), which was also the ratio of their
prices in mishnaic times (Tosef., BM 9:10), the nutritive value
of the former being regarded as half that of the latter (Pe’ah
barmas, issay
8:5). The Karaite Anan held that for fulfilling the commandment
on Passover unleavened bread made of barley was to be
used, this being in his view, “the bread of affliction” and poverty.
Of the cereals, barley ripens first (Ex. 9:31) and “the barley
harvest season” is the designation of the spring (Ruth 1:22). On
the second day of Passover, the Omer (“sheaf”), the first fruit
of the harvest, was reaped (Lev. 23:9–15), and although there is
no specific reference to its being barley, the rabbinic tradition
to that effect is undoubtedly correct (Men. 84b) as the barley
harvest begins at Passover time. One kind of beer was brewed
from barley (BB 96b), another from a mixture of barley, figs,
and blackberries (Pes. 107a), and yet another called “Egyptian
zythos” from a third part of barley, a third part of safflower,
and a third part of salt (ibid., 42b). The brewing of beer has
a long tradition in Egypt; it is depicted in ancient Egyptian
drawings. Se’orah, the Hebrew name for barley, derives from
the long hairs (Heb. se’ar, “hair”) of its ears, and the cereal is
designated by cognate words in almost all Semitic languages.
The Greeks regarded barley as the very earliest crop grown in
the world. In Ereẓ Israel there are at present cultivated species
of two- and six-rowed barley (*Five Species). These species
have been found in Egyptian tombs. A wild barley (Hordeum
spontaneum) which grows in Ereẓ Israel is thought to be
the origin of two-rowed barley. In excavations at Gezer fourrowed
barley has been uncovered, and in the caves of En-Gedi
and of the Judean Desert, two- and four-rowed barley of the
mishnaic and talmudic periods has been found.
Bibliography: Loew, Flora, 1 (1926), 707–23; J. Feliks, Olam
ha-Ẓome’aḥ ha-Mikra’i (1957), 146–8, 318; idem, Ha-Ḥakla’ut be-Ereẓ-
Yisrael…, (1963), 362 (index); idem, Kilei Zera’im… (1967), 23–27.
Add. Bibliography: Feliks, Ha-Ẓome’aḥ, 164.
[Jehuda Feliks]
BARLIN, FREDERICK WILLIAM (fl. early 19th century),
English portrait painter. Barlin, who worked in London, was
the son of Berliner, the ḥazzan of the Chatham synagogue.
Barlin exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1802 and 1807. Two
of his portraits are of particular significance: that of Solomon
*Herschel, chief rabbi of the Ashkenazi Jews in England, and
that of the Sephardi haham Raphael *Meldola. The latter was
painted wearing a three-cornered hat in a courtly, elegant, and
typically English manner. This portrait was later engraved and
published by Joshua Lopez.
Bibliography: Roth, Art, 533; A. Rubens, Anglo-Jewish Portraits
(1935), 53–55, 80.
BARMAS, ISSAY (1872–1946), violinist and teacher. Born in
Odessa, Barmas studied with I. Grzimali in Moscow and with
J. Joachim in Berlin. He made his debut as a soloist in Berlin
in 1899 and toured Europe. He also formed his own quartet
in 1919. From 1900 to 1929 he taught in Berlin (Stern Conservatoire,
1900–05; Klindwort-Scharwenki Conservatoire,
1905–29) and later moved to London. Among his publications
are Die Loesung des geigentechnischen Problems (1913), Ton-
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3 163