JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

fore R. Joshua (Par. 1:1). He is found disagreeing with R. Akiva
(Shek. 3:1, 4:5) and he transmitted a tradition in the name of
R. Joshua in the presence of R. Akiva, who changed his ruling
in line with this tradition (Taan 4:4). In the Bavli he is called
a “disciple-colleague” of R. Akiva (BB 158b). It was said of
him: “With the passing of Ben Azzai, diligent scholars passed
from the earth” (Sot. 9:15). According to tradition Ben Azzai
was one of the four “who entered the Garden” (pardes). According
to Tosefta Ḥag. 2:3, “he caught a glimpse and died,”
while his companion Beb Zoma went mad as a result of this
mystical experience. In the Jerusalem Talmud (Ḥag. 2:1 77b)
their roles are reversed. Although he declared that whoever
abstains from procreation is regarded as though he had shed
blood (Tos. Yev 8:7), he himself never married so as not to be
distracted from his studies. When accused of not practicing
what he preached, he answered: “What shall I do if my soul
yearns for Torah? The world can be perpetuated by others”
(ibid.). The Bavli, nevertheless, reports in one place that he
married, but separated from his wife (Sot. 4b), and according
to another tradition he was betrothed to Akiva’s daughter
who, as her mother had done, made it a condition of marriage
that her husband devote himself to the study of the Torah
(Ket. 63a, but cf. S. Friedman, JSIJ, 3 (2004) 1–39, and Tosefot
to Ket. 63a). His aphorisms included: “Be quick in carrying
out a minor commandment as in the case of a major one, and
flee from transgression; for one good deed leads to another
good deed and one transgression leads to another transgression;
for the reward for a good deed is another good deed
and the reward for a transgression is another transgression”
(Avot 4:2). While R. Akiva said that the verse “Thou shalt love
thy neighbor as thyself” (Lev. 19:18) is a great principle of the
Torah, Ben Azzai declared that the verse “This is the book of
the generations of man” (Gen. 5:1) embodied an even greater
principle, i.e., of the common origin of mankind (Sifra 7:4 and
parallel passages). Ben Azzai was not referred to as “rabbi” and
was not described as one of the “sages,” but rather as one of
the “disciples” who argued in the presence of the sages (Sanh.
17b). Because of his reputation, later generations of scholars
used to underscore their own scholarship by claiming: “I am
like Ben Azzai in the marketplace of Tiberias” (Kid. 20a). Ben
Azzai was renowned for his saintliness; it was said: “He who
sees Ben Azzai in his dreams may look forward to achieving
saintliness” (Ber. 57b). He is numbered by some among the
*Ten Martyrs (Lam. R. 2:2, no. 4).
Bibliography: Bacher, Tann; Hyman, Toledot, 1206–09.
[Zvi Kaplan]
BEN BAG BAG, tanna, apparently of the first century C.E.
His most famous dictum: “Turn it and turn it [the Torah], for
everything is in it, and contemplate it, and grow grey and old
over it, and stir not from it, for you can have no better rule than
this” (Avot 5:25) is elsewhere attributed to Hillel (ARN 12, 11). A
number of halakhic statements are reported in Ben Bag Bag’s
name in various baraitot (e.g., Er., 27b; Tosef., BK 10:38). On the
question whether a person is permitted to take the law into his
benchetrit, aaron
own hands he states: “do not enter your neighbor’s courtyard
in stealth to take what belongs to you without his permission,
lest you appear to him a thief; rather break his teeth [i.e., enter
openly] and say to him, ‘It is my own property that I take’” (BK
27b). Some scholars identify Ben Bag Bag with Johanan b. Bag
Bag, who sent a question to Judah b. Bathyra in Nisibis, and
whom the latter eulogized as “an expert in the chambers of the
Torah” (Tosef., Ket. 5:1). Some incline to the view that the name
is symbolic like that of *Ben He He (Avot 5:26) with whom he
has been identified, and that he was a proselyte (Ḥag., 9b and
Tos., S.V. Bar He He). Some identify him with the proselyte who
came to Hillel and asked to be taught the Torah “while standing
on one leg,” which occasioned the famous reply of Hillel:
“What is hateful to thee do not do to thy fellow.”
Bibliography: Bacher, Tann; Frankel, Mishnah, 100f.; Hyman,
Toledot, 672 S.V. Yoḥanan b. Bag Bag.
[Zvi Kaplan]
BEN CHANANJA, the first Hungarian Jewish learned periodical,
published in German between 1844 and 1867. Ben
Chananja was founded and edited by Leopold *Loew. It first
appeared in Leipzig as a quarterly in 1844; resumed publication
in Szeged, Hungary, in 1858; and became a weekly in
reduced format in 1861. Ben Chananja advanced the scientific
development of Jewish studies and stimulated interest in
Jewish questions. Its contributors were scholars of prestige in
Hungary and abroad. The periodical presented biblical exegesis,
commentary on the Talmud, historical studies, educational
information, and literary news. It also considered religious
and social problems, advocating the establishment of a
rabbinical seminary and legislation for Jewish emancipation.
Among the contributors were Simon Bacher, Abraham Hochmuth,
Solomon Buber, S.D. Luzzatto, and Leopold Dukes.
The academic material was supplemented with topical articles,
editorials, Jewish communal news, and occasional poems.
Ben Chananja had correspondents in Jerusalem, Berlin,
New York, and in most cities with large Jewish communities
in Europe and America.
[Jeno Zsoldos]
BENCHETRIT, AARON (1886–1967), physician and communal
leader. Born in Tetuan, Spanish Morocco, Benchetrit
spent his childhood in Caracas, Venezuela, and studied in
Paris and Caracas. He was the medical director and administrator
of the Leproserías de Venezuela (1921–26). In 1927 he
moved to Bogotá, Colombia, where he was in charge of all
leprosy cases in the country from 1927 to 1935 and directed
many scientific researches on leprosy. He published several
medical works including Disertaciones de un estudiante de
medicina (1917), La epidemia febríl de Caracas (1919), Nuevas
disertaciones (1921), and Disertaciones acerca de la lepra
(1922). He also wrote on Zionism in Disertaciones acerca del
sionismo. Benchetrit was president of the Centro Israelita of
Bogotá and was president of the Zionist Federation of Colombia,
1943–44.
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3 323