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enveniste
English and Scandinavian myth and ritual schools in regard
to the cultic situations in the life of the king of Israel. Bentzen
criticizes both schools and argues for the impact of history on
the cultic myth. Furthermore, it is the “Urmensch” idea which
underlies the role of the king, the priest, the prophet, and the
messiah in Israel. He also wrote Introduction to the Old Testament
(2 vols., 1948–49, 19616).
Bibliography: VT, Congress Volume (1953), vii–xv (incl.
complete bibliography).
[Zev Garber]
BENVENISTE (also Bienveniste, Benvist, Abenbenist, etc.),
personal name and surname of a widespread Sephardi family.
The name originated in Spain and Provence and means “welcome.”
It is first mentioned in documents from Barcelona in
1079. After the expulsion from Spain in 1492, the family was
dispersed, especially throughout the Ottoman Empire.
Prominent members, in addition to those to whom separate
articles are devoted, include BENVENISTE IBN BEN-
VENISTE (early 14th century), translator of medical works
from Arabic into Catalan during the reign of James II, king
of Aragon (1291–1327); IZMEL (ISHMAEL) of Barcelona (early
14th century), physician, father of the physician Samuel *Benveniste;
ADZAY (=ḥASDAI) BENVENIST (mid-15th century),
member of the communal council in Saragossa; JUDAH B.
ABRAHAM (1460–1515), born in Toledo, a descendant of Abraham
*Benveniste of Soria, who, after the expulsion from Spain,
was active in Salonika; and NISSIM (15th century), a scholar
whose halakhic queries to Isaac *Aboab were published by
Abraham Meldola in Ziv ha-Einayim.
Bibliography: Baer, Urkunden, 1 pt. 2 (1936), index, S.V. Bienvenist;
Baer, Spain, index; Cantera-Millás, Inscripciones, 180, 193–4;
Sefarad, index to vols. 1–15 (1957), 399, 401.
BENVENISTE, ABRAHAM (1406–1454), “court rabbi” in
Castile mentioned in crown documents dating from about
1430. The young king, John II, handed over the government of
Castile to two noblemen, who appointed Benveniste, a native
of Soria, to restore its shaky fiscal administration. Benveniste
acted as tax farmer general of the realm and organized the levy
of the taxes and customs duties with the assistance of subordinates,
mainly Jews. He also supplied the army with money
and grain. In 1432, at the request of the Jewish communities
of the Castile, the king appointed Benveniste chief justice and
tax superintendent of Castilian Jewry, with the title of Rab
de la Corte. The same year he convened the representatives
and scholars of the Castilian communities in Valladolid, and
framed a number of ordinances designed to strengthen the
status of Spanish Jewry, which had been undermined by the
recent tragic events. These enactments were directed toward
maintaining religious instruction, the fair administration of
justice in Jewish courts, equitable tax apportionment, defense
against informers, and curbs on extravagance in dress and entertainment.
Benveniste was conservative in his approach to
religious problems. He opposed the rationalist philosophical
trends widespread among Jewish scholars, and strove for the
rehabilitation of Jewish communal life through strict observance
of the precepts of Judaism.
Bibliography: Graetz, Hist, 4 (1949), 228–9, 280, 341, 351;
Baer, Urkunden, 1 pt. 2 (1936), 305–6, 309; Baer, Spain, index; Neuman,
Spain, index; Finkelstein, Middle Ages, 103, 349.
[Zvi Avneri]
BENVENISTE, ABRAHAM (18th century), rabbi and communal
leader in Smyrna. Benveniste was a son-in-law of
Ḥayyim Ventura and of Abraham Ibn Ezra, both outstanding
scholars of Smyrna. His communal activity brought him
into contact with the scholars of Italy, and his correspondence
with Moses Ḥayyim Morpurgo of Ancona during the
years 1746–50 is extant. Morpurgo asked him to supply a list
of books recently published in Turkey and to keep him informed
of any new publications, while Benveniste on his part
sent Morpurgo a list of books which he asked him to acquire
for him in Venice. It is possible therefore that Benveniste was
in the book trade.
Bibliography: M. Benayahu, in: Aresheth, 1 (1958), 224–6,
231–9.
BENVENISTE, EMILE (1902–1976), French scholar of language
theory and comparative grammar. Holding a chair at
the College de France from 1937 to his death, Benveniste was
extremely influential on French theorists in various domains
of linguistics and literary criticism, such as Gerard Genette for
narrative discourse and Roland Barthes, Tzetan Todorov, and
Michel Riffaterre in the field of poetry theory. Benveniste’s linguistics
perpetuates the heritage of his master, Antoine Meillet,
and that of Ferdinand de Saussure, though his theory of
communication notably diverges from Saussure’s. Benveniste
published profusely, but his most influential essays and theories
are collected in the two volumes of his Problèmes de linguistique
générale, in the first volume of which key dichotomies
are proposed: “je/non-je” (I/non-I), “histoire/discours”
(story/discourse). These concepts are central to modern narrative
discourse as well as communications theory: they help
define the larger dichotomy between objective and subjective
utterance.
Another crucial dichotomy is to be found in the chapter
“Sémiologie de la langue” in the second volume: the dichotomy
of “semiotic” (related to the sign) and “semantic”
(related to discourse).
[Dror Franck Sullaper (2nd ed.)]
BENVENISTE (or Benvenist), ḤAYYIM BEN ISRAEL
(1603–1673), Sephardi rabbinic scholar and codifier. Benveniste
studied in his native Constantinople mainly under
Joseph b. Moses of Trani, and also under Joseph *Samegah.
In 1624, when he was only 21, he began to write his detailed
commentary on the Sefer Mitzvot Gadol of *Moses b. Jacob of
Coucy, which he called Dina de-Ḥayyei (“Law of the Living”).
The same year he was appointed to decide cases dealing with
382 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3