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en-avi, ithamar
BEN-AVI, ITHAMAR (1882–1943), Hebrew journalist and
Zionist. He was the son of Eliezer *Ben-Yehuda, from the initials
of whose name Ben-Avi formed his Hebrew name. Ben-
Avi was one of the first modern Jews whose mother tongue
was Hebrew. In his early youth he began publishing in Hebrew
periodicals edited by his father. He studied at the Teachers’
Seminary of the Alliance Israélite Universelle in Paris and at
the Institute for Oriental Studies at the University of Berlin.
On his return to Ereẓ Israel in 1908, he joined the editorial
board of Ben-Yehuda’s Ha-Ẓevi and Ha-Or, bringing to them
something of the flamboyant spirit of popular European and
American journalism. During World War I he lived with his
family in the U.S.A. Returning after the war he founded the
daily *Do’ar ha-Yom in Jerusalem in 1919 and continued to edit
it until 1929. He also served as the Jerusalem correspondent for
the London Times and Daily Mail and several French newspapers.
An accomplished speaker in several languages, Ben-
Avi visited various countries on behalf of the Jewish National
Fund and the settlement projects of the native generation of
moshavot farmers, of whose organization, *Benei Binyamin,
he was a co-founder. In 1939 he went to the U.S.A., where he
later died. His remains were interred in Jerusalem in 1947. Impetuous
by nature, Ben-Avi advocated bold innovations, such
as the writing of Hebrew in Latin characters, in which he published
the weekly Dror (1933–4) and a biography of his father
(Avi, 1927). In the 1930s he campaigned for the partitioning
of Palestine into Jewish and Arab cantons. His political and
cultural aim was the transformation of the Jewish people into
an independent “western” nation.
Bibliography: Ḥ. Ben-Yehuda, Nosei ha-Degel (1944), includes
bibliography.
[Gedalyah Elkoshi]
BENAYAH, family of scribes living in San’a, Yemen, in the
15th–16th century. Between 1450 and 1483 the patriarch of
the family, BENAYAH BEN SAADIAH BEN ZECHARIAH BEN
BENAYAH BEN ODED, known as Ben Merjaz, copied dozens
of books, most of which were copies of the Bible (tījān, sin.
tāj). In the margins of the pages of these copies there was the
*mesorah and at the beginning the Maḥberet ha-tījān, which
included the rules of reading. These copies, however, did not
include the Aramaic targum of *Onkelos or the Arabic tafsīr
of *Saadiah, as was customary in ancient Yemenite copying.
Benayah’s inscriptions are considered to be accurate and concise,
which make him the most important of Yemen’s scribes.
His children were also scribes: DAVID (1484–1510), JOSEPH
(1486–1508), SAADIA (b. 1489), the daughter MIRIAM (!), and
the grandchildren ME’ODED and AVIGAD, the sons of David.
Y. Sappir, who visited Yemen in 1859, tells of the beautiful and
accurate copying done by Miriam. At the end of the manuscript
she wrote: “Do not bring punishment upon me if you
discover mistakes since I am a nursing mother, Miriam the
daughter of Benayah the scribe” (Massaʿ Teiman, 1945, 174;
the manuscript was never found). The sons of Benayah also
copied the haftarot, prayer books which preserves the ancient
Yemenite tradition, and other books such as the Kitāb Mi’yār
al-’Ilm of Abū Ḥāmid al-*Ghazālī by Sa’adia. The connection
between the tradition of the scholars of Tiberian tradition
and the writings of the Benayah family was a subject of debate
among scholars in 1961. According to an ancient tradition,
Benayah copied over 400 texts. Today 33 manuscripts of
the Benayah family are documented. Most texts are owned by
public libraries and a few by private collectors (Rigler, 1991,
163–65). The texts were usually ordered by wealthy men, and
after a while were donated to synagogues. In the colophon of
a copy of the Early Prophets from 1475 Benayah dedicated a
poem honoring the man who had ordered the book, a certain
Avraham (Ratzaby, 1975). The Benayah family controlled the
copying profession in San’a, which was the most important
Jewish center in Yemen between 1460 and 1540.
Bibliography: Y. Sappir, Massaʿ Teiman (ed. A. Ya’ari, 1945),
173–74; Haaretz, May 26, June 2, 16, July 14, 1961; Jan. 5, Feb. 2, 1962;
Y. Ratzaby, in: Sinai 76 (1975), 273–76; M. Beit Arié and C. Sirat, Oẓar
Kitvei Yad Ivriyyim (1972–86), 3 vols; M. Rigler, in: Y. Ratzaby Jubilee
Volume (1991), 161–79.
[Yosef Tobi (2nd ed.)]
BENAYAHU, MEIR (1926– ), Israeli scholar. The son of the
Israel chief rabbi Isaac *Nissim, Benayahu was a member of
the team of senior workers at the *Ben-Zvi Institute for Research
on Oriental Jewish Communities, which was founded
in 1947, and from 1964 he was its director. A prolific researcher,
he published numerous studies and documents. His works include:
Marbiẓ Torah (“Propagator of the Torah”), on the authority,
functions, and status of the bearer of the title Marbiẓ
Torah in Oriental countries (1951); Rabbi Ḥayyim Yosef David
Azulai (1959), a comprehensive monograph; Rabbi Ya’akov
Elyashar ve-Ḥibburo Megillat Paras (“R. Jacob Elyashar and
His Work ‘The Scroll of Persia’, ” 1960); Sefer Toledot ha-Ari
(“Biography of R. Isaac *Luria”, 1967). He also published a new
edition of Zimrat ha-Areẓ of Jacob *Berab (the Third) on the
beginnings of the Jewish settlement in Tiberias during the
mid-18th century. Benayahu was an editor of the yearbook
Yerushalayim (Jerusalem), comprising studies on Ereẓ Israel
(vols. 3–5; 1951–55). The first seven volumes of the scientific
periodical of the *Ben-Zvi Institute, Sefunot (begun in 1957),
were jointly edited by Izhak *Ben-Zvi and Benayahu, while
from the eighth volume onward he was the sole editor. From
1985 he was director of the Nissim Research Institute and in
2004 he was awarded the EMET Prize for work that integrated
traditional Torah learning with modern scholarship.
BEN AZZAI, SIMEON (early second century C.E.), tanna,
generally referred to in talmudic literature simply as “Ben
Azzai.” In three places in the Mishnah (Zev. 1:3, Yad. 3:5, 4:2)
he is referred to by his full name: Rabbi Shimon ben Azzai
(according to Parma de Rossi 128 and others). Presumably a
disciple of *Joshua b. Hananiah, he transmitted rulings in his
name (Yoma 2:3), brought a proof in support of R. Joshua’s
position (Yev 4:13), and interpreted an obscure tradition be-
322 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3