JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

arzilai
yot Kabbaliyot bi-Yeẓirot shel Yehoshua Bar-Yosef ve-Yiẓḥak Bashevis-Singer
(1994); idem, Ḥedvat ha-Ḥayyim mul Ḥedvat ha-Mavet
(1999); G. Shaked, Ha-Sipporet ha-Ivrit, 2 (1983), 338–51; B. Rubinstein,
Hashpa’atam shel Gogol ve-Chekhov al ha-Iẓuv ha-Komi be-Maḥaẓotav
shel Yosef Bar-Yosef (1977).
[Yitzhak Julius Taub / Anat Feinberg (2nd ed.)]
BARZILAI, Italian family. GIUSEPPE (1824–1902), Orientalist.
Born in Gradisca (Goerz), Giuseppe studied at Padua and
was at one time secretary of the Trieste Jewish community. His
work on the relations between the Semitic and Indo-Germanic
languages (1885) won a prize from the Académie Française. He
also translated the Song of Songs and Lamentations into Italian
verse (1865 and 1867).
SALVATORE (1860–1939), son of Giuseppe, Italian politician,
played no part in Jewish life. An ardent supporter of the
Italian claim to Trieste, at the age of 18 he was found guilty of
treason against Austria, but was acquitted on appeal after a
year of imprisonment. Salvatore studied law at Bologna and
began to practice in 1882, specializing in criminal law. Later
he became recognized as an eminent legal authority. He was
foreign editor of La Tribuna of Rome from 1883 to 1891, and
entered the Chamber of Deputies in 1890 as an extreme leftwing
republican advocating Italy’s withdrawal from the Triple
Alliance. His irredentism was so great that he became
known as “the Deputy from Trieste.” He strongly supported
Italy’s declaration of war against Germany and Austria in 1915,
and was later appointed minister for the liberated territories.
Salvatore was an Italian delegate at the peace conference in
1919 and became a senator in 1920. Among his writings are
La criminalità in Italia (1885); La recidiva (1883); and Il nuovo
Codice Penale (1889).
Add. Bibliography: E. Falco, Salvatore Barzilai: un repubblicano
moderno tra massoneria e irredentismo (1996).
BARZILAI (Eisenstadt), YEHOSHUA (1855–1918), leader of
the Ḥibbat Zion movement and writer. Barzilai was born in
Kletsk, Minsk region, Belorussia, to a rabbinical family, and
from an early age became active in the Ḥibbat Zion movement.
He first visited Ereẓ Israel in 1887, but a year later returned
to Russia, where he became one of the founders of the
clandestine *Benei Moshe, which was led by *Aḥad Ha-Am
and became a center of modern spiritual and national thought.
He was elected deputy member of the Odessa Ḥovevei Zion
Committee, which was then the central body for activities on
behalf of the new settlements in Ereẓ Israel.
Barzilai returned to Ereẓ Israel in 1890 and was appointed
secretary of the Executive Committee of Ḥovevei Zion in Jaffa.
He was instrumental in the founding of several educational
and community institutions, wrote numerous articles and reports
on life in the Yishuv in various Hebrew papers in Russia,
and from 1893 to 1895 edited, jointly with Yehudah Grasovski
(*Goor) Mikhtavim me-Ereẓ Yisrael (Letters from Ereẓ Israel),
a bulletin on the life and problems of the Jewish community in
Ereẓ Israel. He was also active on behalf of the settlers in their
disputes with the administration of Baron Rothschild.
Barzilai joined the Zionist movement and participated
in the Minsk Conference of Russian Zionists (1902). He was
among the opponents of the Uganda Plan. From 1904, he was
an official of the Anglo-Palestine Bank in Jerusalem and was
one of the founders of the Hebrew Gymnasium in Jerusalem,
the first modern high school in Ereẓ Israel, and the Beit Ha-
Am community center of Jerusalem. At the beginning of
World War I he returned to Europe, and after a long illness
died in Lausanne, Switzerland. His remains were reinterred
in 1933 on the Mount of Olives. A collection of his writings
was published in 1912.
Bibliography: Tidhar, I, 150–1; M. Smilansky, Mishpaḥat
ha-Adamah, II, 60–65; Rabbi Binyamin, Keneset Ḥakhamim (1961),
271–7
[Benjamin Jaffe]
BARZILLAI (Heb. יַ ּלִזרַ ְ ּב), name of two biblical persons.
(1) Barzillai the Gileadite (Heb. יִ דָ עְלִ ּגַה), a wealthy man of Rogelim.
When David and his men fled to Mahanaim in Gilead
because of *Absalom’s rebellion, he, like two other prominent
Transjordanians, Machir son of Ammiel of Lo-Debar and
Shobi son of Nahash, the Ammonite, welcomed them with
food. Barzillai also sustained David throughout his stay in
Mahanaim. On David’s return to Jerusalem, Barzillai accompanied
him as far as the west bank of the Jordan; however,
owing to his advanced age, Barzillai did not accept David’s
invitation to come to Jerusalem and reside at the royal court
(II Sam. 17:27; 19:32–41). Instead, he sent his son Chimham
(or Chimhan) with David and from this time Chimham and
his family lived at the king’s court (I Kings 2:7). It seems that
a quarter near Bethlehem was set aside for Chimham and
his relatives and was therefore called “Chimhan’s (keri; ketiv:
“Chemoham”) Residence” (Geruth Chimham, Jer. 41:17). In
post-Exilic Judah two priestly families, Habaiah and Hakkoz –
which claimed descent from Barzillai, were disqualified from
the priesthood. The sons of Hakkoz were readmitted in the
same generation (Ezra 2:61; Neh. 7:63).
(2) Barzillai of Abel-Meholah (a city in Transjordan), the
father of *Adriel, the husband of *Merab, the daughter of King
Saul (II Sam. 21:8, where it reads Michal instead of Merab, cf.
I Sam. 18:19). It has also been suggested that Barzillai from
Meholah was Barzillai the Gileadite.
Bibliography: de Vaux, Anc Isr, 121–2; B. Maisler (Mazar),
in: Tarbiz, 12 (1940/41), 120; EM, 2 (1965), 342–3 (incl. bibl.).
[Israel Moses Ta-Shma]
BASCH, VICTOR GUILLAUME (1863–1944), French philosopher
and a defender of human rights. Basch was born in
Budapest and studied German at the Sorbonne. He served as
a professor at the universities of Nancy, Rennes, and Paris. In
1918 he held the newly established chair of aesthetics at the
Sorbonne. Basch became well-known when he championed
Alfred Dreyfus. He was a founder of the League for the Rights
194 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3