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cized the political positions of Prime Minister Golda *Meir,
and within *Ha-Kibbutz ha-Me’uḥad clashed with Yitzḥak
*Tabenkin, who supported the Greater Israel idea. Ben-Aharon
did not run for the Ninth Knesset but continued to act behind
the scenes within Ha-Kibbutz ha-Me’uḥad and the Labor
Party, while expressing dovish views with regard to the peace
process with the Palestinians.
Throughout his career Ben-Aharon was considered not
only a political leader but an ideologue as well. His articles
and speeches appeared in various collections.
Add. Bibliography: Siḥot Im Ben-Aharon (1984); Y. Gvirtz,
Yeled Lo Ratzu’i: Yiẓḥak Ben-Aharon: Biografyah (2003).
[Susan Hattis Rolef (2nd ed.)]
BENAIAH (Heb. הָיָנְ ּב ,ּוהָי ָנ ּב; ְ “YHWH has built”), son of Jehoiada,
one of David’s warriors and Solomon’s commander in
chief. Benaiah came from Kabzeel in Judah. Famous for his
individual acts of valor, the killing of two warriors, the slaying
of a lion in a pit in the snow, and the defeating of an Egyptian
giant, he was one of David’s most honored warriors (II Sam.
23:20–23; I Chron. 11:22–25). It is reasonable to attribute some
of these deeds to the period of David’s outlawry or to the first
part of his reign. David appointed Benaiah as the head of his
bodyguard (II Sam. 23:23; I Chron. 11:25), identified by some
scholars with the Cherethites and Pelethites (II Sam. 20:23,
according to the keri; I Chron. 18:17; cf. II Sam. 8:18; I Kings
1:38), whose commander was also Benaiah. After the death of
*Ahithophel, he served as counselor to David, together with
the priest *Abiathar (I Chron. 27:33–34, where the order of the
names should be reversed according to some versions: “Benaiah
son of Jehoiada” instead of “Jehoiada son of Benaiah”).
Benaiah opposed *Adonijah’s attempt to seize the crown at the
end of David’s reign and, together with the priest *Zadok and
the prophet *Nathan, he proclaimed Solomon king (I Kings
1:8–44). He later carried out the liquidation of *Shimei, of
Solomon’s rival *Adonijah, and of the latter’s supporter *Joab
(2:25–46), in whose stead Solomon appointed Benaiah commander
in chief.
Bibliography: Bright, Hist, 189–90; de Vaux, Anc Isr. 127–8,
220–1; Dinaburg (Dinur), in: Zion, 11 (1946), 165ff.; Mazar, in: Sefer
D. Ben Gurion (1964), 248–67.
[Yehoshua M. Grintz]
BENAIM (Heb. םייאנ ןב), name of North African families
of rabbis and merchants. JACOB ḥAYYIM BENAIM (d. 1803),
rabbi in Fez, Morocco, author, and halakhic authority, left
Fez about 1760 for Algeria on his way to Ereẓ Israel, but remained
in the city of Mascara, where he was appointed rabbi
and dayyan. In 1764 he moved to Algiers to become av bet din,
a position he held for 18 years; eventually, however, his harsh
exercise of this office provoked opposition from noted scholars
in the community and he left. He settled in Leghorn in 1782
and there had his works printed, including Zera Ya’akov, responsa
(1784); Yeshu’ot Ya’akov, sermons (1795); and an edition
ben ʿalān, joshua
of the Zohar (1795). His novellae to the Talmud were published
posthumously in Ḥesed ve-Emet (Salonika, 1813). He also composed
piyyutim for a local Purim of Algiers to commemorate
the victory over the Spanish.
MOSES (19th century), merchant, emigrated from Algiers
to Marseilles, France. In 1819 he established the Dramont commercial
house for Franco-Moroccan trade; his good relations
in the two countries proved beneficial to the business affairs
of his Jewish compatriots. His son Makhluf founded another
commercial company with the later Rif rebellion leader Abd
el-Kader. RAPHAEL ḥAYYIM MOSES (c. 1850–1920), was born
in Tetuan but emigrated to Palestine in his youth. He was a
member of the bet din of Tiberias. In the 1870s he traveled to
Turkey and North Africa as an emissary to collect charitable
funds for Palestine. In Gibraltar he was chosen chief rabbi
(1881), and held this position until his death. His publications
include Raḥamim [initials of Raphael Ḥayyim Moses (son of)
Isaya (and) Masudah] Peshutim, responsa (Tunis, 1910; but according
to the preface not published before 1914), and other
rabbinical works.
JOSEPH (1882–1961), rabbi and clerk to the bet din of Fez,
Morocco, was a lifelong bibliophile, who collected the largest
library of books and manuscripts in Morocco. His own works
include a bio-bibliographical dictionary of rabbis of Morocco,
Malkhei Rabbanan, Kevod Melakhim (Jerusalem, 1931); a collection
of sermons, Millei Me’alyata (in manuscript); and many
other writings left in manuscript. After his death his library
was sold to the Jewish Theological Seminary of New York.
DAVID (1888–1968), son of Raphael Ḥayyim Moses, was the
leader of the Jewish community in Gibraltar after his father’s
death. He became a member of the Government Council of
the Colony, and in 1954 he was appointed honorary consul of
Israel for Gibraltar.
Bibliography: J.M. Toledano, Ner ha-Ma’arav (1911), 185, 193;
Yaari, Sheluḥei, 656, 859; R.H.M. Benaim, Raḥamim Peshutim (1910),
preface; A. Cahen, Juifs dans l’Afrique septentrionale (1867), 105–6;
Hirschberg, Afrika, 2 (1965), index; H.Z. Hirschberg, Me-Ereẓ Mevo
ha-Shemesh (1957), 212–4; Oración Fúnebre… J. Ibn Naim (Leghorn,
1803); Miège, Maroc, 2 (1961), 160, 156.
[David Obadia]
BEN ʿALĀN, JOSHUA (ninth century?), author of a Hebrew
treatise on the Jewish calendar. Excerpts from the treatise are
found in a polemical essay by the Karaite scholar Hasan b.
Mashi’aḥ (Ms. Leningrad), in which the latter refers to Ben
ʿAlān as “the rabbinical scholar who is the best versed in the
science of the calendar.” This is the only source for Joshua’s
name; a grammarian by name of Judah b. ʿAlān, who lived in
Tiberias at the beginning of the tenth century, may have been
Joshua’s brother, as Harkavy assumes.
Bibliography: Harkavy, in: Ha-Goren, 4 (1903), 75–80;
Poznański, in: REJ, 44 (1902), 176–7; Bornstein, in: Ha-Tekufah, 9
(1921), 224–5; Z.H. Joffe, Korot Ḥeshbon ha-Ibbur (1931), 86ff., 94ff.,
129ff.
[Moshe Nahum Zobel]
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