JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

Jonah of Safed), and in 1651 became professor of Hebrew language
and rabbinic literature at the Collegium Neophytorum
(for Jewish converts) in Rome; at the same time he served as
scriptor hebraicus in the Vatican Library. He is remembered
above all for his Bibliotheca Magna Rabbinica… de scriptoribus
et scriptis hebraicis, ordine alphabetico hebraice et latine digestis
(Heb. title Kiryat Sefer), a comprehensive bibliography of
Jewish books (Rome, 4 vols., 1675–93). The last volume was
edited by Bartolocci’s student Carlo Giuseppe Imbonati, who
added a fifth volume, Bibliotheca Latina-Hebraica (1694; all 5
vols. repr. 1969), containing a bibliography of Latin works by
Christian authors on the Jews or on Judaism. Bartolocci’s work
is the first systematic, all-inclusive bibliography of Jewish literature.
It served as the basis for Wolf’s Bibliotheca Hebraea and
for subsequent works in the field. Some of the works which
Bartolocci regarded as most important he presents in full, in
the Hebrew (or Aramaic) original and in Latin translation.
Among these are the Antiochus Scroll, Alphabet of Ben Sira,
and Otiyyot de-Rabbi Akiva. Occasionally, he gives biographies
of important writers. His biographies of biblical commentators,
such as Rashi, Ibn Ezra, David Kimḥi, Gersonides, and
Abrabanel, were published also in A. Reland’s Analecta Rabbinica
(Utrecht, 1702). His work still retains some importance.
Other works by Bartolocci remain in manuscript.
Bibliography: G.M. Mazzuccheli, Gli Scrittori d’Italia, 2
(1763), 468; Roth, Italy, 394; Milano, Italia, 681; Steinschneider, in:
ZHB, 2 (1897), 51 no. 99.
[Cecil Roth]
BARTOV, HANOCH (1926– ), Israeli novelist. Bartov, who
was born in Petaḥ Tikvah, served in the Jewish Brigade during
World War II and during the War of Independence served
in the Israel Army. Bartov was a member of kibbutz Ein ha-
Ḥoresh, and a reporter for the daily La-Merḥav. He served as
cultural attaché at the Israel Embassy in London, in 1966–68.
A prolific writer, his writings include stories, novels, plays, and
journalism, written in the more than five decades that have
passed since the publication of his first novel, Ha-Ḥeshbon
ve-ha-Nefesh (“The Reckoning and the Soul,” 1953), in which
he discussed the ideological disillusionment of Israeli youth
when they returned to civilian life after the War of Independence.
Problems of new immigrants are treated in the novel
Shesh Kenafayim le-Eḥad (1954; Everyone Had Six Wings,
1974), which he later adapted for the stage. A visit to the U.S.
is vividly recorded in the travel-book Arba’ah Yisre’elim ve-
Khol Amerikah (“Four Israelis and All The U.S.A.,” 1961). The
subject of Piẓei Bagrut (1965; The Brigade, 1967) is the Jewish
Brigade during World War II and the conflict between Jewish
morality and the wish to avenge the Holocaust. For this novel,
one of the finest Hebrew examples of an Israeli Bildungsroman,
Bartov was awarded the Shlonsky Prize. Another novel in this
genre is Bartov’s Shel Mi Attah Yeled? (1988; Whose Little Boy
are You?), recollecting childhood experiences in one of Israel’s
oldest moshavot. Bartov’s realistic style is always suffused
with humor and a touch of irony. The complex, dynamic Israeli
baruch
identity is at the heart of all his works. Other works include:
Ha-Shuk ha-Katan (“The Small Market,” 1957); S’a ha-Bayta,
Yonatan (“Go Home, Jonathan,” 1962). Be-Emẓa ha-Roman
(“In the Middle of It All,” 1988), which won Bartov the Bialik
Prize, tells the life story of Balfour Shub, a writer, as it is reconstructed
by his son, who returns from the United States
with his father’s coffin and a literary inheritance consisting
of 26 tapes. The gap between generations, the relations of fathers
and sons, is a recurring motif in the prose of Bartov.
The protagonist in Zeh Ishl Medaber (“Ishl Speaking,” 1990),
is yet another account of a life full of activity intertwined with
political events in Israel. Regel Aḥat Ba-Ḥuẓ (“Halfway Out,”
1994), describes the effects of World War II on life in Britishruled
Israel, while the novella Lev Shafukh (“A Heart Poured
Out,” 2001) tells of an encounter between two men representing
two worlds: Amos Gefen, a well-known Hebrew writer of
Ashkenazi origin, and Sami Sasson, a house painter of Oriental
origin, hired to whitewash the writer’s apartment. The
ups and downs of married life is one of the main issues in the
novella, as in Bartov’s 2004 novel Mi-Tom ad Tom (“From Innocence
to Innocence”).
In 1978 Bartov was awarded the Yiẓḥak Sadeh Prize
for military literature for his Dado, a study of Lt.-General
David *Elazar (Eng. trans. 1981). Other works include Arba’a
Yisra’elim be-Ḥaẓar Saint James (1969); An Israeli at the Court
of St. James (1971) and the travel account “A Fair in Moscow”
(1988).
Add. Bibliography: G. Shaked, Ha-Sipporet ha-Ivrit, 4
(1993), 81–86; idem, in: Haaretz, Sefarim (Oct. 12, 1994); M. Gilboa,
Piẓei Zehut: Iyyunim bi-Yeẓirato shel H. Bartov (1988); E. Shai, in:
Ma’ariv (Oct. 7, 1994); A. Feinberg, in: Modern Hebrew Literature
11 (1985); M. Pelleg, in: Haaretz, Sefarim (Apr. 2, 2002); K. Feit, in:
Haaretz, Sefarim (Jan. 28, 2004). I. Perlis, in: Al ha-Mishmar (Oct.
10, 1980); Z. Shamir, in: Maariv (Sept. 26, 1980); M. Pelli, “A Late
Encounter with the Holocaust: Paradigms, Rhythm and Concepts
in The Brigade by H. Bartov,” in: Hebrew Studies 22 (1981), 117–254;
E. Ben Ezer, in: Al ha-Mishmar (Jan. 16, 1981); A. Levit, in: Maariv
(July 27, 1984); M. Gilboa, “Amerika ke-Makom, ke-Metaforah ukhsemel
bi-Shelosha Romanim,” in: Migvan (1988), 113–26; Z. Shamir, “H.
Bartov – Sofer ‘Ba’al Maḥshavot,’” in: Moznayim 64, 5 (1990), 53–55;
H. Helperin, “Mane’ul u-Vari’aḥ ve-Lev Shafukh,” in: Moznayim 76,
3 (2002), 14–16; A. Feldman, “Sippuro shel Peẓa,” in: Moznayim 78,
2 (2004), 7–10.
[Gitta (Aszkenazy) Avinor / Anat Feinberg (2nd ed.)]
BARUCH (Heb. ְ ךּור ּב; ָ “blessed”), son of Neriah son of Mahseiah,
scribe and trusted companion of the prophet *Jeremiah,
who set down in writing all the latter’s prophecies and may
have composed the biographical narrative about Jeremiah
(Jer. 36:4). Baruch’s brother Seraiah was the quartermaster of
Zedekiah (51:59), the last king of Judah. In the fourth year (or
possibly the fifth) of the reign of *Jehoiakim, Baruch wrote
down, at Jeremiah’s dictation, all of the prophet’s oracles and
read them in the temple court before the entire community,
which had assembled for a fast day proclaimed in Kislev of
that year. Baruch then read them before the king’s ministers
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3 181