JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

dents are required to develop active projects within the Negev
community.
The Overseas Student Program is given in English for
either one semester or a full academic year. The curriculum
focuses on Human Resettlement (Russians, Ethiopians, and
Bedouin), Desert Studies and Archeology, and Pre-Med. The
School for Continuing Education offers a wide variety of
courses to the Negev community at large.
Since the beginning of BGU activities, its scientists have
engaged in basic and applied research. This covers widely
ranging areas as desert research, alternative energy, development
of water resources, chemistry, biotechnology, agriculture,
and medicine, regional development, social ecology, the
David Ben-Gurion era, and medical education.
Originally found in 1957 as the Institute for Arid Zone
Research, the Institutes for Applied Research became part of
the university in 1973. Comprising the institutes are the Institute
for Chemistry and Chemical Technology and the Institute
for Agriculture and Applied Biology. The institutes for
applied research are geared toward tapping the various natural
resources for the region’s development. Numerous plant species
with industrial and agricultural value have been selected
and developed for desert growth. Experiments with underground
brackish water irrigation have resulted in new cash
crops for Negev settlements. Other projects include research
on food technology, desalination, recycling of waste water,
the application of waste heat and solar energy for refrigeration
and direct-contact cooling, and the synthesis of organic
compounds for chemical industries.
The Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research was established
in Sede Boqer as a national center for arid zone research.
Its goal is to provide the knowledge and skills to transform
arid lands of low productivity, human deprivation and
famine into areas that are productive and self-sustaining.
Members of the institute’s 15 units work together to explore
a wide array of problems relating to the settling of the
desert. The fields of study touch on man’s habitat and social
organization, climate and the desert environment, water resources
and natural energy sources, such as solar energy, the
adaptive mechanisms to climatic extremes of plants and animals,
and the development of unique biotechnologies suitable
for desert areas.
By government decision, BGU was entrusted with some
750,000 documents associated with the late David Ben-Gurion,
founding father and first prime minister of Israel. These
papers form the Ben-Gurion Archives and serve the Ben-
Gurion Research Center. They reflect the ideology, political
activities, and spiritual testament of Ben-Gurion – the man,
the Zionist, and the statesman – and constitute an invaluable
record of the creation of the State of Israel. At the Ben-Gurion
Research Center scholars study the Ben-Gurion era, Zionism,
the history of Israel, and related subjects. The center publishes
and disseminates relevant studies and, in conjunction with the
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, provides academic
courses and educational programs.
ben-hadad
BGU sponsors a host of innovative programs as part of
its outreach service to the community. All students who receive
financial aid from BGU commit themselves to participating
in one of the university’s wide range of social action
programs, which include the Open Apartments Project, in
which the students live in underprivileged neighborhoods and
serve as part-time community workers; the “Kidma” (Progress)
Program, which promotes the advancement of new immigrants
from Ethiopia; a special program of Assistance for
the Elderly; and the Matriculation Examination Program for
the Bedouin Sector.
Website: www.bgu.ac.il.
[Linda Livna]
BEN-HADAD (Heb. דַ דֲה ןֶ ּב; “Son of [the god] Hadad”), the
name of two, or perhaps three, kings of *Aram-Damascus
(see *Damascus), as Hebraized in the Bible. In Aramaic inscriptions
the name appears as Brhdd (דדהרב), with the native
Aramaic word for “son,” br (then pronounced bir, later bar),
instead of the Hebrew ben.
BEN-HADAD I. Ben-Hadad I lived in the early ninth century
B.C.E. He was the son of Tabrimmon and grandson of
Hezion (I Kings 15:18), and contemporary with King *Asa of
Judah and King *Baasha of Israel. Like his father (cf. I Kings
15:19; II Chron. 16:3), he was bound by alliances to the kings of
both Israel and Judah. However, when war broke out between
Baasha and Asa, the latter won Ben-Hadad to his cause by
sending him treasures from the Temple and the royal palace.
Ben-Hadad invaded the kingdom of Israel, conquering *Ijon,
*Dan, *Abel-Beth-Maacah, the region of Chinneroth, and all
the land of Naphtali (I Kings 15:20). (The Ben-Hadad who set
up the votive stele, found in the vicinity of Aleppo, which was
dedicated to the Tyrian god Melqart (COS II, 152–53) is probably
not identical with Ben-Hadad I the son of Tabrimmon.
This other Ben-Hadad seems to have ruled another Aramean
kingdom, perhaps Arpad.)
BEN-HADAD II. Scholars (see bibliography in Pitard,
ABD I, 665) have debated the identity of the Ben-Hadad referred
to in I Kings 20–22 through II Kings 8. In I Kings 20
and 22, chapters which raise numerous critical probems, the
royal protagonists in the battles between Aram-Damascus and
Israel are *Ahab and Ben-Hadad. Chapters 5–8 of II Kings deal
with relations between Ben-Hadad and Ahab’s sons, Ahaziah
and Joram. W. Albright identified the Aramean king as Ben-
Hadad the son of Tabrimmon (= Ben-Hadad I) and assigned
him a reign of 40 years. Others viewed the Aramean king of
these chapters as a successor of Ben-Hadad son of Tab-rimmon,
to be designated Ben-Hadad II. That designation would
make Hazael’s son and successor (see below) Ben-Hadad III.
However we designate him, this Ben-Hadad is described as
a dominant ruler who could muster 32 vassals against Israel
(I Kings 20:1). On three occasions he waged war against Ahab,
succeeding in the first conflict in besieging Samaria (20:2ff.).
Ahab resolved to resist when the demands of Ben-Hadad became
excessively harsh, and managed to defeat him. Later
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