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quently quoted in the work of his son Eleazar. His other sons
were Samuel and Joseph.
SAMUEL was also a rabbi of Meknès. His signature occurs
on the halakhic rulings of the community, one of which is
dated 1732. ELEAZAR was one of the important scholars of Meknès.
His signature appears on the decisions given in 1726 and
1730. Of his many works, which are extant in manuscript, the
most important is Sefer Mareh Einayim (Jerusalem National
Library), composed in Fez between 1710 and 1712, a collection
of sermons by Castilian exiles and Moroccan rabbis from
the 16th century, as well as sermons which Eleazar had heard
from Ereẓ Israel emissaries. He also wrote Pekuddat Elazar
on Proverbs, and a commentary on rabbinic maxims. In 1718
he edited and adapted Refu’ot u-Segullot and Tivei Asavim of
Jacob Katan of Fez. JOSEPH was the secretary to the bet din of
Meknès in 1834 and was later appointed dayyan.
Bibliography: J.M. Toledano, Ner ha-Ma’arav (1911), 145;
J. Ben-Naim, Malkhei Rabbanan (1931), 22b, 29a, 61b, 94a, 126a; G.
Scholem, Kitvei Yad be-Kabbalah (1937), 102–4.
BAHRAIN (Bahrein), territory extending along the Arabian
shore of the Persian Gulf southward from *Basra including
many small islands. Talmudic references to ports and islands
on the Persian Gulf indicate that Jews were already settled in
this region. The Jews in the old capital of Bahrein, Hajar, are
recorded in Arabic sources as having refused to accept Islam
when Muhammad sent a force to occupy the territory in 630.
In the 12th century *Benjamin of Tudela refers to 500 Jews living
in Qays and to a Jewish population of 5,000 in al-Qatīfa
(undoubtedly an exaggeration) who were said to control the
pearl fishery. In the 19th century, Jewish merchants from Iraq,
Persia, and India went to Bahrein, and there was a small Jewish
colony. It has dwindled as a consequence of the political
situation. In 1968 only some 100 Jews remained in the new
capital city of Manama.
At the turn of the 20th century around 30 Jews remained
in Bahrein, with services held in private homes on holidays.
The Jewish community maintained its cemetery. Most of the
Jews were prosperous and had good relations with their Muslim
neighbors. Up until the Oslo Agreements (1993) between
Israel and the Palestinians, the rulers of Bahrein had no official
relations with Israel, but subsequently semi-official relations
– commercial, in particular – were established.
Bibliography: A.T. Wilson, The Persian Gulf (1954), 83–91;
Fischel, in: Alexander Marx Jubilee Volume (Eng., 1950), 203–8; Gustinsky,
in: Edot, 1 (1946), 238–40.
[Walter Joseph Fischel]
BAḤUR (Heb. רּוח ּב). ַ In the Bible baḥur is first used to mean
“selected for military fitness” and applied especially to handpicked
warriors (I Sam. 26:2; II Sam. 10:9; Judg. 20:15; I Chron.
19:10; et al.). Later, ne’arim was used for “youngsters,” and
baḥur came to mean young men in the prime of their life; cf.
“The glory of young men is their strength” (Prov. 20:29). In
many cases it is mentioned with betulah meaning virgin (Deut.
32:25) and Jeremiah contrasts baḥur-betulah with old-man–
boy and with man-woman (51:22). Later the term was used
for an unmarried man (Ket. 7a). The Talmud uses it also in
the sense of an innocent young man who has not “tasted sin”
(Pes. 87a), and eventually as a student at a talmudical school
(yeshivah). In Yiddish, pronounced boḥer, it is also the term
for an unmarried young man. In modern Hebrew it means a
young man and the feminine baḥurah, an unmarried girl.
BAḤURIM (Heb. םירּוח ִ ּב ַ ,םירֻחַ ִ ּב), a biblical locality southeast
of Jerusalem to which *Paltiel accompanied Saul’s daughter Michal
when he was forced to return her to her former husband,
David (I Sam. 25:44; II Sam. 3:16). On his flight from Absalom,
David passed Baḥurim after ascending the western slope of the
Mount of Olives. He was cursed there by Shimei, son of Gera,
a native of the place (II Sam. 16:5ff.; I Kings 2:8). Jonathan and
Ahimaaz, who acted as intermediaries between David and his
secret supporters in Jerusalem, hid there in a well when they
fell under suspicion (II Sam. 17:18ff.). Its accepted identification
is with Raʾs al-Tamīm on the eastern slope of the Mount
of Olives, where Iron Age pottery has been found.
Bibliography: Voigt, in: AASOR, 5 (1925), 67ff.; EM, S.V.;
Press, Ereẓ, 1 (1951), 65; Elliger, in: PJB, 31 (1935), 49ff., 70ff.
[Michael Avi-Yonah]
BAḤUẒIM (probably from the Hebrew ץּוח ּב, ַ “outside”), name
given by the Jews to the apparently Jewish tribes living in the
15th and 16th centuries along the Algerian-Tunisian border in
the regions of Kabylia and Constantine in Algeria and of Le
Kef in Tunisia, whom the Arabs named Yahūd al-ʿArab (Arab
Jews). These seminomadic tribes were agriculturists in Tunisia,
and peddlers and jewelers in Algeria. Completely illiterate,
the Baḥuẓim observed the Sabbath and swore by Sīdnā
Mūsā (“our Master Moses”). They had their sons circumcised
by the rabbi of the nearest town, who also officiated at their
marriages and funeral rites. The theory brought forward by N.
*Slouschz that these tribes were originally Berbers who had
adopted Judaism was followed by several authors; hence they
used the term “Judaized Berbers.” However, Ḥ.Z. *Hirschberg
asserted that they were really marginal elements of the Jewish
community living outside the Jewish centers. Their existence
as such during the 16th century and their ignorance of the Berber
language seem to confirm the latter’s theory.
In 1852 there were about 1,500 Baḥuẓim in Algeria, and
in 1912 there were still about a hundred Baḥuẓim tents in Tunisia.
After the end of World War I these tribes steadily disappeared.
Some of them converted to Islam, while others settled
in the surrounding Jewish communities, which willingly accepted
them.
Bibliography: Netter, in: Univers Israélite, 7 (1852), 341–6;
idem, in: MGWJ, 1 (1852), 377–82; J. Cohen-Ganouna, Le Judaïsme Tunisien
(1912), 59–60; Bugéja, in: Bulletin de la Société des Conférences
Juives d’Alger, 3 (1928/29), 101–25; Slouschz, in: Keneset… le-Zekher
Bialik, 1 (1936), 443–64; Hirschberg, Afrikah, 2 (1965), 29–30.
[Rachel Auerbach]
64 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3