JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

evacuation from London in 1939–45. In 1968 there were 55 Jews
in Bedford and in 2004 the population was estimated at 45.
Bibliography: C. Roth, Rise of Provincial Jewry (1950),
29–31; Roth, England, index; M. Lissack, Jewish Perseverance (1851);
Rigg-Jenkinson, Exchequer. Add. Bibliography: JYB, 2004.
[Cecil Roth]
BEDIKAT ḤAMEẒ (Heb. ץֵמָח תקי ַ דִ ּב; ְ “searching for leaven”),
ceremony of searching for leaven, instituted in order to ensure
that not even the smallest particle of *ḥameẓ remains in
the house during Passover. The biblical injunction, “Even the
first day shall ye put away leaven out of your house” (Ex. 12:15),
was interpreted by the rabbis as referring to the eve of Passover,
i.e., the 14th of Nisan. The ceremony of bedikat ḥameẓ
takes place on the 13th of Nisan (or the 12th if the 13th should
be on a Friday). It follows the Ma’ariv prayer immediately after
nightfall and before any other kind of activity is undertaken.
The ceremony is preceded by the blessing: “Blessed art Thou
O Lord our God, King of the Universe, Who hast sanctified
us by Thy commandments and commanded us concerning
the removal of the leaven.”
By the light of a wax candle, with a wooden spoon and a
whisk made of several chicken or goose feathers tied together,
the master of the house searches every corner in the house for
stray crumbs. Every room into which ḥameẓ may have been
brought during the past year has to be searched. Since a blessing
must never be recited without good reason, a few crumbs
of bread are deliberately left on window sills and in other obvious
places. The ceremony of bedikat ḥameẓ takes precedence
even over the study of Torah on that evening. If the husband
is not available, the ceremony has to be performed by the wife
or another member of the family. The kabbalistic school of R.
Isaac Luria hid ten pieces of bread for bedikat ḥameẓ. Leaven
to the mystics symbolized the ferment of base desires and evil
impulses which had to be purged. Upon completion of bedikat
ḥameẓ, the leaven collected is put away in a safe place and
the master of the house recites these words: “May all leaven
that is in my possession, which I have not observed, searched
out or had cognizance of, be regarded as null and be common
property, even as the dust of the earth.” On the morning of
the 14th of Nisan, no later than 10 A.M., the leaven is burned
and a similar Aramaic formula is recited. This observance is
called Bi’ur ḥameẓ – the removal or the burning of ḥameẓ.
The laws concerning bedikat ḥameẓ are codified in Shulḥan
Arukh (Oḥ 431 to 445).
[Harry Rabinowicz]
BEDZIN (Yid. Bendin), town in the Zaglembie Dabrowskie
area, Kielce district, Poland. A Jewish settlement existed in
Bedzin from the beginning of the 13th century with a privilege
from Casimir the Great and his successors to work as
merchants The development of Bedzin was interrupted by
the Swedish invasion of the mid-17th cent. In 1765 the Jewish
population numbered 446; in 1856, 2,440 (58.6% of the total);
in 1897, 10,839 (45.6%); in 1909, 22,674 (48.7%); in 1921, 17,298
bedzin
(62.1%); and in 1931, 21,625 (45.4%). A large number of Jewish
workers were employed in Bedzin’s developing industries
at the beginning of the 20th century, and the town became
the center of Jewish and Polish socialist activity and Jewish
workers parties like the Bund and Po’alei Zion during the 1905
Russian revolution. Zionist activities were begun in Bedzin by
Ḥovevei Zion in the 1880s and expanded in interbellum Poland
to comprise various Zionist youth organizations. After
World War I Jews took a considerable part in iron-ore mining,
metallurgy, zinc and tin processing, and the production
of cables, screws, nails, and iron and copper wire. Jewishowned
undertakings included chemical works and factories
for paints, candles, and bakelite products, in particular buttons
for the garment industry, which expanded in the area
during 1924–31. Most Jews earned their livelihoods as merchants
and craftsmen.
Jewish schools and a gymnasium (secondary school)
were supported by the community with the help of donations
from local Jewish industrialists. The Jewish community was
very active organizing social and cultural institutions. The
first pioneers of the Third Aliyah came from Bedzin. Dr. S.
Weinzier was elected as member of Parliament (Sejm). The
chain of credit cooperatives and free loan societies established
in Bedzin through the American Jewish Joint Distribution
Committee had a membership of nearly 1,000.
[Nathan Michael Gelber / Shlomo Netzer (2nd ed.)]
Holocaust Period
The German army entered the town on Sept. 5, 1939, and five
days later they burned the Great Synagogue in the Old City.
About 50 houses surrounding the synagogue, which were inhabited
exclusively by Jews, went up in flames and 60 Jews
were burned to death. During 1940–41 the situation in Bedzin
was considered somewhat better than in most other places in
occupied Poland (Bedzin and its neighbor *Sosnowiec were
for a long time the only large cities in Poland where no ghetto
was established). For this reason thousands of Jews from central
Poland sought refuge there. Several thousand Jews from
the district were expelled and forced to reside in Bedzin,
among them all the Jews from Oswiecim (German name –
Auschwitz), who arrived in April–May 1941, prior to the construction
of the Auschwitz camp. About 6,500 Jews in the town
were sent to forced labor camps and others were put to work
locally making clothing and boots for the German army. In
May and June 1942 the first deportations took place in which
2,400 “nonproductive” Jews were sent to their death in Auschwitz.
On Aug. 15, 1942, about 8,000–10,000 Jews were sent
to Auschwitz, while others were shot on the spot for disobeying
German orders. In spring 1943 a ghetto was established in
the suburb of Kamionka. On June 22, 1943, 4,000 Jews were
deported and on August 1, 1943, the final liquidation of the
ghetto began. In all, about 30,000 Jews were sent to Auschwitz
from Bedzin. Only a limited number of Jews survived the concentration
camps by hiding. The Jewish underground resistance
in Bedzin became active at the beginning of 1940. They
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