JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

in 1560. The Christian printer Daniel *Bomberg urged Balmes
to write his famous Hebrew grammar Mikneh Avram. This
appeared together with a Latin translation entitled Peculium
Abramae in Venice at the end of 1523, some months after the
author’s death. The final chapter (on biblical accent marks)
was completed by a fellow physician, Kalonymus b. David. In
this work Balmes relied upon the grammarians *Ibn Janaḥ and
Profiat *Duran. He mentioned Plato’s Cratylus (which deals
with semantics) – an indication of his interest in the philological
conceptions of the Greek philosophers. His grammatical
teachings lean too heavily on the theory of logic, and because
of this and his attempt to use Latin philology to explain various
aspects of Hebrew grammar, he exerted only limited influence
upon Hebrew grammatical literature. Balmes’ attempt to
codify Hebrew syntax, to which he devoted a special section of
his book (Sha’ar ha-Harkavah ve-ha-Shimmush) is, however,
of some significance. The work was greatly used by Christian
Hebraists of the ensuing period. According to Gedaliah *Ibn
Yaḥya, who was present at Balmes’ funeral, he had taught officially
at the University of Padua, and many of his gentile
students followed his bier.
Bibliography: D. Amram, Makers of Hebrew Books in Italy
(1909), 169–172; Gedaliah b. Joseph Yaḥya, Shalshelet ha-Kabbalah
(Amsterdam, 1697), 49b–50a; C. Roth, Jews in the Renaissance (1959),
76; F. Secret, Les Kabbalists chrétiens de la Renaissance (1964), 107; N.
Ferorelli, Abramo de Balmes ebreo di Lecce e i suoi parenti (offprint
from Archivio Storico per le Province Napoletane, 31 (1906), 632–54);
Steinschneider, Uebersetzungen, 972–3 and index S.V. Abraham de
Balmes.
[Joseph Elijah Heller]
BALOGH, THOMAS, BARON (1905–1985), British economist
whose main interests were planning, development, and
labor economics. Born in Budapest, he worked as a Rockefeller
Fellow at Harvard University, from 1928 to 1930. In 1931
he joined the economic staff of the League of Nations and
settled in London, working as an economist until 1939, when
he became associated with the Oxford University Institute of
Statistics. From 1955 to 1960 he taught in England and in the
United States. Balogh served as a consultant to various United
Nations agencies and foreign governments, including India,
Malta, Greece, Peru, and Turkey. In 1964 he became an economic
adviser to the British Labour government under Harold
Wilson. He received a life peerage in 1968. Balogh’s publications
include: Dollar Crisis (1949), Unequal Partners (1963),
Planning for Progress (1963), and Economics of Poverty (1966).
When Labour returned to office in February 1974, Balogh was
appointed minister of state in the Department of Energy, a
post he held until December 1975. In 1976–78 he served as
chairman of the National Oil Corporation.
Add. Bibliography: ODNB online.
[Joachim O. Ronall / William D. Rubinstein (2nd ed.)]
BALSAM, spice designated in the Bible by various names:
םֶ ׂשֹּב (bosem), םֶ ׂשֶ ּב (besem), ירֳצ ִ (ẓori), ףָטָנ (nataf ), and, in rab-
balsam
binic literature, ףָטָ ק (kataf ), םָ סְלַ ּב (balsam), ןֹ ומַ סְלַ ּבֹ ופַ ּא
(appobalsamon),
ןֹ ומְ סרַפֲ ְ א (afarsemon), afarsemon occuring most
frequently in the Talmud and Midrash and designating the
perfume extracted from the sap of the Commiphora opobalsamum.
It was the only tropical, and the most expensive, spice
grown in Ereẓ Israel. According to Josephus (Ant., 8:174–5),
balsam was originally brought to Ereẓ Israel by the Queen
of Sheba as one of the gifts included in the “hundred and
twenty talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and precious
stones; there came no more such abundance of bosem”
(I Kings 10:10). Generally, in the Bible, bosem signifies spices of
all kinds. Yet in the Song of Songs, in the verses “I have gathered
my myrrh with my bosem” (5:1) and “the beds of bosem”
(5:13; 6:2), the reference is to balsam alone. At present the tree
grows wild in the valley of Mecca where it is called beshem.
Many strains of this species are found, some in Somalia and
Yemen. As a perfume it is hardly used today. It serves in the
Orient as a healing agent for wounds and as an antidote to
snakebite and the sting of scorpions. Apparently, the ẓori of
the Bible also signifies some remedy compounded of balsam
sap and other ingredients. The “balm (ẓori) of Gilead” is mentioned
as having healing properties. Nataf was one of the elements
constituting the incense burned in the Tabernacle (Ex.
30:34) and is identified as ẓori in an early baraita dating back
to the Second Temple (Ker. 6a). The word in another context
designates balsam oil (Shab. 25b–26a), and this identification
appears to be correct (see also *Storax). Balsam oil was highly
regarded in rabbinic literature and by Greek and Roman writers.
Among the latter, Theophrastus, Strabo, Diodorus, and
Pliny the Younger lavished high praise on the balsam grown
in orchards near the Dead Sea. Pliny’s remarks are especially
enlightening. In their struggle against the Romans, the Jews
strove desperately to destroy the balsam orchards and prevent
them from falling into the hands of the enemy. The Romans,
however, captured them and, in his triumphal march in Rome,
Titus displayed balsam trees brought from Judea. The orchards
in Jericho and En-Gedi henceforth provided the Romans with
an important source of revenue (Historia Naturalis, 12:25).
Admiration was expressed in the Talmud for the balsam “of
Rabbi (Judah ha-Nasi’s) household and the household of the
emperor.” It was the best and most expensive spice of ancient
times, and accordingly Rav, the Babylonian amora, composed
for it a special blessing: “Who creates the oil of our land” (Ber.
43a). The perfume has a pungent odor and the Midrash cites
it as one of the enticements of the sinful daughters of Zion:
“She would place the balsam between her heel and her shoe
and, when she saw a band of young men, she pressed upon it
so that the perfume seeped through them like snake poison”
(Lam. R. 4:18). Tradition has it that, after King Josiah hid away
the “holy oil” with which the kings of Judah were anointed,
balsam oil was used in its stead (Ker. 5b). In the messianic era,
the righteous will “bathe in 13 rivers of balsam” (TJ, Av. Zar.
3:1, 42c). Remains of the terraces in the hills of En-Gedi, where
balsam trees once grew, can still be seen. Excavations in the vicinity
have uncovered a workshop complete with its ovens and
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