JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

aalis
Bibliography: EM, S.V.; N. Avigad and Y. Yadin, Genesis
Apocryphon (1956), 28; Alt, in: PJB, 24 (1928), 12ff.; 25 (1929), 11ff.;
Abel, in: RB, 23, p. 386–7.
[Michael Avi-Yonah]
BAALIS (Heb. סי ִלעַ ֲ ּב), king of Ammon during the first half of
the sixth century B.C.E. The name appears to be composed of
the theophoric root “Baal” and a suffix of unclear meaning; it
is ancient and appears in *Ugaritic documents in alphabetic
writing as Bʿls and in syllabic writing as Baʿala-si. Although
a connection has been made between the biblical Baalis and
a stamp impression c. 600 B.C.E. from Ammonite territory
reading lmlkmr ʿbd bʿlyšʿ this last, Baal-Yasha, is etymologicaly
distinct from Baalis. The Bible mentions Baalis only once
(Jer. 40:14), in connection with the murder of *Gedaliah, who
had been appointed by the Babylonian king as governor of
the Judean cities after the conquest of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E.
Johanan son of Kareah and some army officers warned Gedaliah
that Baalis had dispatched Ishmael son of Nethaniah to
murder him. For his motives, see *Ammonites and *Ishmael.
Bibliography: Bright, Hist, 310; Ginsberg, in: A. Marx Jubilee
Volume (1950), 366ff.; Yeivin, in: Tarbiz, 12 (1940/41), 261–2, 265–6;
W. Rudolph, Jeremia (Ger., 1947), 685ff. Add. Bibliography: S.
Ahituv, Handbook of Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions (1992), 241.
[Bustanay Oded]
BAAL-MAKHSHOVES (pen name of Israel Isidor Elyashev;
1873–1924), Yiddish literary critic, pioneer, and creator
of Yiddish literary criticism as an art form. Born in Kovno,
Baal-Makhshoves was educated at a Courland yeshivah which
combined the moral severity of the *Musar movement with a
modern curriculum, including mathematics, geography, and
German. The influence of the Musar movement intensified
his skepticism, melancholy, and analytic sagacity. After completing
his studies at a Swiss high school, he studied medicine
at Heidelberg and Berlin. Although he practiced medicine
in Kovno, Vilna, Riga, Warsaw, and St. Petersburg, and also
translated a few popular works of science into Yiddish, his
main interest was in belles lettres. In 1896 he began to write
in German and Russian and in 1901 published his first Yiddish
critical reviews in Der Yud. Influenced by the writer I.L.
*Peretz, Baal-Makhshoves continued to write in Yiddish. In
a brilliant essay, “Tsvey Shprakhn – Eyneyntsike Literatur”
(“Two Languages – One Literature”), he stressed the unity of
Jewish literature despite its linguistic duality. In another famous
essay, “Dray Shtetlakh” (“Three Towns”) he called attention
to the three different interpretations of shtetl culture
in the works of Peretz, Sholem Asch, and I.M. Vaisenberg.
An early admirer of Theodor Herzl, he translated Altneuland
into Yiddish (1902) and participated in the Fifth and Twelfth
Zionist Congresses. His war years were spent as a medical officer
in the Russian Army. Another burst of literary activity
as Yiddish editor of Klal-verlag (Berlin, 1922–23), was cut
short by his illness and subsequent death. Baal-Makhshoves
introduced European aesthetic standards and norms into his
interpretation of Yiddish literature. He discovered new talents
and encouraged H. *Leivick, David *Bergelson, and the
postrevolutionary Kiev Group. He held that both Hebrew and
Yiddish should be recognized as Jewish national languages,
the former because it linked the Jewish people with its historic
past and the latter because it united Jews in the Diaspora. He
saw himself fulfilling a role in Yiddish literature similar to that
of critics like Byelinski and Lessing in Russian and German
literature, respectively, and as heralding a Jewish literary renaissance
whose pioneers were Sholem Yankev *Abramovitsh
(Mendele Mokher Seforim), *Sholem Aleichem, I.L. *Peretz,
Sholem *Asch, and Ḥ.N. *Bialik, to each of whom he devoted
a penetrating essay. He accepted Taine’s theory that historical,
geographical, and ethnic environment determined the character
of literary creativity, and formulated the view that true
creativity led from regionalism to national culture, illustrating
it in his essay on the impact of South Russian Jewish life on
Yiddish literature. He translated authors like Turgenev (Foters
un Kinder, “Fathers and Children,” 1922) and Tolstoy (Kozakn,
“Cossacks,” c. 1920) into Yiddish.
Less well-known but no less valuable are his Ironishe
Mayselekh (“Ironic Tales,” after 1910), in which he expressed
his increasing pessimism and disillusionment. His selected
works appeared in five volumes (1915, 19232, 19293) and in a
single volume in 1953.
Bibliography: Rejzen, Leksikon, 2 (1927), 744–66; S. Niger,
Lezer, Dikhter un Kritiker (1928), 495–565; Eliashev, in: Lite, 1 (1951),
1313–72; N.B. Minkoff, Zeks Yidishe Kritiker (1954), 227–90; LNYL, 1
(1956), 359–66; S. Niger, Kritik un Kritiker (1959), 360–82. Add. Bibliography:
M. Krutikov, in: Polin, 17 (2004), 243–58.
[Simha Katz and Shlomo Bickel / Shifra Kuperman (2nd ed.)]
BAAL-MEON (Heb. ןֹ ועְמ לעַ ַ ּב), city in Transjordan also called
Beth-Baal-Meon (Josh. 13:17), Beth-Meon (Jer. 48:23), and
apparently Beon (Num. 32:3). It was allotted to the tribe of
Reuben (Num. 32:37–38; Josh. 13:17) and remained in Israelite
hands until the revolt of Mesha, king of Moab (mid-ninth
century B.C.E.). According to Mesha’s stele (1.9), he captured
the city from Israel and rebuilt it, constructing a pool or water
channel there (ashu’aḥ). Baal-Meon is listed among the cities of
Moab by Jeremiah (48:23) and Ezekiel (25:9). Its identification
with the modern village of Maīn, 4½ mi. (7 km.) southwest of
Madeba, coincides with Eusebius (Onom. 44:21; 46:2), who
identified Beelmaus with a large village nine miles from Heshbon
near the hot springs of Ba’aru. The village is built on ancient
remains, and the most important find there has been the
mosaic pavement of a church on which a number of churches
of the Holy Land are depicted. The Tosefta (Shev. 7:11) contains
a reference to Baal-Meon in the Shephelah of Transjordan.
Bibliography: Conder, Survey, 176–7; A. Musil, Arabia Petraea,
1 (1907), 397–9; Abel, Geog, 2 (1938), 259; Press, Ereẓ, S.V.
[Michael Avi-Yonah]
BAAL-PERAZIM (Heb. םי ִצרְּ ָפ
לעַ ַ ּב), locality (perhaps an
old Canaanite sanctuary) near Jerusalem, where David de-
8 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3