JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

they discovered that Oliphant could give them no practical
help, and again split into divergent groups. Some advocated
continuing political activity in Constantinople to gain recognition
from the Ottoman authorities, while the rest, led by
Belkind, decided to go to Ereẓ Israel immediately.
In Ereẓ Israel
The first to arrive in the country was Ya’akov Shertok (father
of Moshe *Sharett), who preceded the first group of 14 Bilu’im
by a few weeks. The group, led by Belkind, reached Jaffa on
July 6, 1882. The day after their arrival they began work at the
*Mikveh Israel agricultural school where they lived in a commune,
the household being run by the only woman in the
group. There they underwent great hardships, as they were
unused to physical labor, received meager wages, and were
subject to oppression by the director of the school. However,
they found a great friend in Charles *Netter, the founder of
Mikveh Israel, who adopted a paternal attitude to the Bilu’im,
encouraged them, and openly identified himself with their
aims. With Netter’s death that same year (1882), the Bilu’im
were again without a patron, until Yeḥiel *Pines, a writer and
public figure, came to their assistance. Elected by the Bilu’im
as their leader and guide, he transferred some of them from
Mikveh Israel to Jerusalem to become artisans. The Bilu group
in Jerusalem called itself “Shehu” (והש), the initial letters of
Shivat he-Ḥarash ve-ha-Masger (“Return of the Craftsman and
the Smith,” cf. II Kings 24:16), and they established a carpentry
and woodcraft workshop. However, the scheme eventually
failed because of lack of experience, and the Jerusalem members
of Bilu dispersed elsewhere in Ereẓ Israel.
In November 1882 some of the members of Bilu, under
Belkind’s leadership, moved to *Rishon le-Zion, working as
hired laborers, sharecroppers, and manual laborers for the village
council. Poor yields and difficult relationships between
the settlers and hired laborers in the village were greatly disappointing,
especially as the Bilu’im hoped to found their
own settlement eventually. They continued their search for
satisfactory work between Rishon le-Zion and Mikveh Israel.
Even the Russian Ḥovevei Zion disappointed them, for they
failed to provide them with the means for settlement. After
a steady decline in their number abroad, the Bilu association
in Russia died out. In June of 1883, about a year after aliyah,
Bilu numbered 28 members in Ereẓ Israel, of whom 13 were
at Rishon le-Zion, seven at Mikveh Israel as hired laborers,
and three in Jerusalem. They met on festivals and holidays,
organizing a trip on Passover of 1884, together with Eliezer
*Ben-Yehuda, speaking Hebrew among themselves and singing
Hebrew songs.
When the Bilu members who were in Constantinople
realized that their political activities had failed, they also
went to Ereẓ Israel (1884). However, their economic situation
deteriorated steadily. They worked for a while as laborers at
Mikveh Israel but were soon dismissed, and the director of the
school even supplied them with means to emigrate to America.
At the very last moment, Pines succeeded in saving them
bimah
by acquiring the land of the Arab village Qaṭra in the Judean
foothills, an area of 3,300 dunams (c. 800 acres). Borrowing
the money, Pines sent an envoy abroad to sell the land parcels
to Zionist associations, on condition that each of them
hand over their parcel to the Bilu’im. The Bilu settlement of
*Gederah was thus founded, and the Bilu members who had
worked at Mikveh Israel and Rishon le-Zion settled there in
December of 1884. Although a few Bilu’im settled in Rishon
le-Zion and elsewhere, Gederah became known historically
as the Bilu settlement.
An estimated total of 53 Bilu members left Russia for Ereẓ
Israel during the early 1880s. Some returned to Russia or went
on to the U.S., while others remained faithful to the ideal of
settling Ereẓ Israel, and some of them later became leaders in
the public life of the country.
Bibliography: N. Sokolow, Hibbath Zion (Eng., 1935), ch. 42;
idem, History of Zionism, 2 vols. (1919), index; B. Halpern, The Idea of
the Jewish State (1961), 27, 131, 255; M. Meerovitch, Bi-Ymei Bilu (1942);
idem, Mi-Zikhronotav shel Aḥaron ha-Bilu’im (1946); A. Druyanow
(ed.), Ketavim le-Toledot Ḥibbat Ẓiyyon, 3 vols. (1919–32), index; I.
Klausner, Be-Hitorer Am (1962), index; S. Jawnieli (Yavnieli), Sefer
ha-Ẓiyyonut, 2 vols. (19612); Z.D. Levontin, Le-Ereẓ Avoteinu (19503),
passim. Add. Bibliography: S. Laskov Ha-Bilu’im (1991).
[Getzel Kressel]
BIMAH (Heb. ה ָמי ּב; ִ “elevated place”), platform in the synagogue
on which stands the desk from which the Torah is read.
Occasionally, the rabbi delivers his sermon from the bimah,
and on Rosh Ha-Shanah the shofar is blown there. In Sephardi
synagogues, the ḥazzan conducts most of the service
from the bimah. In some Ashkenazi synagogues, the ḥazzan
has a separate reading stand immediately in front of and facing
the ark from which he conducts the service. Alternative
names are almemar (from the Arabic al-minbar, “platform”)
or, among Sephardi Jews, tevah (“box”). The use of the bimah
as a pulpit for reading the Torah in public was known as early
as the times of Nehemiah (Neh. 8:4). Raised platforms were
also known to have existed in the times of the Second Temple
(Sot. 7:8). The Talmud mentions a wooden pulpit in the center
of the synagogue of Alexandria in Egypt (Suk. 51b). In Orthodox
synagogues of the Ashkenazi rite, the bimah is often
in the center, with some intervening seats between the bimah
and the ark (based upon the opinion of Maimonides, in Yad,
Tefillah, 11: 3; Tur., OH 150, and Rema, Oḥ 150: 5). In Sephardi
and Oriental synagogues, the bimah is placed in the middle
of the room opposite the ark and without intervening seats.
The location of the bimah close to the western wall in Sephardi
synagogues was permitted by Joseph *Caro. In his commentary
Kesef Mishneh (to Maimonides, loc. cit.), he wrote: “It is
not essential to place the bimah in the center; all depends upon
the place and time.” A heated dispute, however, resulted from
moving the bimah from the center toward the ark in Liberal
synagogues after the Reform movement started. The most
vehement antagonists of this innovation were Moses *Sofer
(Ḥatam Sofer, Oḥ 28), and Ezekiel *Landau (Noda bi-Yhudah
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