JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

Jewish nature of the site and an appropriate rededication
was held.
By the 2000s plans were underway for the creation of
a Jewish Community Center and an appropriate Jewish memorial
on the site. No stranger to controversy, the new use of
the site has been challenged by some as being too close to the
massacre site and being built therefore on sacred soil.
Bibliography: Y. Yevtushenko, A Precocious Autobiography
(London, 1963); W. Korey, in: New Republic (Jan. 8, 1962); idem,
in: Saturday Review (Feb. 3, 1968); S.M. Schwarz, Yevrei v Sovetskom
Soyuze 1939–1965 (1966), 359–71. Add. Bibliography: E. Klee,
W. Dressen, and V. Riess, The Good Old Days: The Holocaust As Seen
by Its Perpetrators and Bystanders (1988); I. Ehrenburg and V. Grossman,
The Black Book (1981).
[William Korey / Michael Berenbaum (2nd ed.)]
BABOVICH, SIMḤAH BEN SOLOMON BEN NAHAMU
(1790–1855), Karaite ḥakham in the Crimea, living in Eupatoria
(Yevpatoriya). Babovich mainly devoted himself to obtaining
more rights for the Karaites in Russia. In 1827, in conjunction
with the Karaite scholar Joseph Solomon *Luzki, he obtained
exemption of the Karaites from the law pertaining to military
service for Jews. The Karaites in Eupatoria commemorated
this event in an annual prayer. In 1829/30 M. Jost asked
Babovich to send him some Karaite books and to give him
some information about these books. In 1830 Babovich made
a pilgrimage to the Land of Israel together with A. *Firkovich,
who at that time was a tutor of his children and his secretary.
They visited Jerusalem, Hebron, Cairo, and Constantinople.
In 1839 the Karaite Spiritual Council was founded through his
support and he was appointed its head and remained so until
his death, although he was not distinguished as a scholar. At
the same year Babovich was instructed by the government to
provide exact information on the origin, nature, and history
of the Karaites. Babovich turned to A. *Firkovich, who then
proceeded to produce a series of documents, some partly falsified.
He financially supported the Karaite community, donating
the income from his mill to the community and after
his demise bequeathed to it the village he had received from
the government.
Bibliography: O.B. Beliy, in: MAIET, 10 (2003), 664–66;
A. Harkavy, Altjuedische Denkmaeler aus der Krim (1876), 206, 270
ff.; R. Fahn, Sefer ha-Keraim (1929), 94ff; J.M. Jost, Geschichte des Judentums
und seiner Sekten, 2 (1858), 374; Isaac b. Solomon, Pinnat Yikrat
(1834, with letters from Jost and their Tatar translation); Fuerst,
Karaeertum, 3 (1869), 137; A. Firkovich, Avnei Zikkaron (1872), 2, 5,
18ff.; E. Deinard, Massa Krim (1878), 20–40.
[Golda Akhiezer (2nd ed.)]
BABYLON (Heb. Bavel, לֶ בָּ ב, Gk. Βαβυλὼν), ancient city on
the eastern bank of the Euphrates River in what is now Iraq.
(In contemporary convention, “Babylon” is used for the city
name and “Babylonia” for the country. In biblical Hebrew לבב
is used for both.) Its ruins lie within the suburbs of the modern
babylon
city of Baghdad. No satisfactory etymology for the city’s name
has been proposed. Akkadian scribes derived the name from
the words bāb-ili (“gate of god”), but in Genesis 11:9 the name
is explained derogatorily as a derivation from the root bll (“to
confuse”). The English word follows the Greek spelling.
Biblical tradition lists the city with Erech and Akkad
in the land of Shinar (Gen. 10:10), as one of the earliest cities
in Babylonia. This view of the antiquity of Babylon was
also current in Babylon itself in the period after *Hammurapi,
but in fact before 2050 B.C.E. the city was only a small
provincial town.
The first certain mention of Babylon in cuneiform texts is
from the time of the Third Dynasty of Ur (2112–2004 B.C.E.),
when it served as a provincial capital and seat of a governor.
During the Isin-Larsa period (2017–1794) it became the capital
of a small independent kingdom under an Amorite dynasty.
Its kings enjoyed unusually long reigns, and this may
symbolize the stability which allowed them eventually to take
a dominant role in Mesopotamian politics. The city gained
fame during the time of Hammurapi (1792–1750 B.C.E.), when
it extended its influence over most of southern Mesopotamia
through diplomacy and then military conquest. The kings of
Babylon saw themselves as heirs of the Old Akkadian rulers
who had first unified Mesopotamia 400 years before. Under
Hammurapi’s son Samsu-iluna, however, the southern part of
the kingdom was lost.
During the subsequent Middle Babylonian period Babylon
continued as a capital city in southern Mesopotamia. Assyria
in northern Iraq tinkered in Babylon’s politics. Under
the Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurta I (1244–1208), Babylon
was partially destroyed. When Tiglath-Pileser III (745–727)
took Babylon, he gave it the status of an independent kingdom
united to Assyria. In Babylon he reigned under another name,
Pulu, which is found in the Bible (II Kings 15:19). Shalmaneser
V (726–722) continued the practice of employing another
name in Babylon, Ululayu, an adjective meaning “of the sixth
month,” commemorating the month of his birth. The Chaldean
Marduk-apla-iddina (biblical *Merodach-Baladan (Akk.
Marduk-apla-iddina)) proclaimed an independent kingdom
upon Shalmaneser’s death, but *Sargon II (722–705) overthrew
him in 710; and, though he did not adopt a different throne
name in Babylon, he made it his residence for a time and
added “the king of Akkad, governor of Babylon” to his titles.
Following Sargon’s death Merodach-Baladan Mardukapla-iddina
returned, and this may be the time of his correspondence
with *Hezekiah of Judah (2 Kgs. 20:12–19, II Chr.
32:31). Babylon again became a center of resistance to Assyria,
inspiring the Assyrian king Sennacherib to destroy the city in
689, an act widely viewed as sacrilegious. His son Esarhaddon
(680–669) rebuilt the city and expressed piety toward its gods.
At the end of his life he divided his kingdom between his two
sons, making Shamash-shum-ukin his heir in Babylon and
Assurbanipal in Assyria. But Shamash-shum-ukin thwarted
his father’s plans by trying to make southern Mesopotamia
completely independent of Assyria. Assurbanipal besieged
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