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Baba Batra Baba Buck

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

The two Gemaras discuss and explain the laws of the Mishnah and add many fresh problems, especially the Babylonian Gemara. The Palestinian Gemara

youi'sel ves together, yea, gather together

very short, and contains little new matter. The following passages may find a place here Bab. 34 One synagogue must not be pulled down before another is built. Herod, by virtue of his authority as king, ignored the rule, and pulled down the Temple before the new one was built. The story of Herod and Mariamne and a narrative of other incidents of Herod's reign are attached. 74 Every member of the community is compelled to contribute his share toward the building of gates,

(604).

is





walls, etc., of his place.

10«: Turnus Rufus (Tyrannus Rufus) asked R. Akiba, " If your God is a friend of the poor, why does He not give them sufficient to live upon comfortably?" To which R. Akiba rejoined, "That we may have opportunity for good actions. " There are ten powerful things; and these are overcome by stronger things a mountain by iron iron by fire fire by water; water is borne by the clouds; these are dispersed by the wind the wind is borne by the human body the latter is broken down Examples by fear; fear is expelled by wine; wine of Gemara. is overcome by sleep death is harder than all these, and yet " charity " (" ze;









dakah ") saves from death.

prove

The order of



The order

of the Hagiographa is Ruth, Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ecclcsiastes, Song of Songs, Lamentations, Daniel, Esther, Ezra (including Nehemiah), and Chronicles. Moses wrote his book, including the section about Balaam, and Job. Joshua wrote his book and the last eight verses of the Pentateuch. 21a At first every father had to teach his children.

A large school was

then opened in Jerusalem and were established in every community. At first they were attended only by youths of sixteen or seventeen years but Joshua b. Gamla introduced the custom that children of six or seven

after that schools



years should attend the schools interesting regulations are added concerning the location of public schools, the number of pupils for each class, and the

The elders of the Jews say, "A judge who has to be summoned to the court, and ordered by the court to pay his debt, is unfit to act as judge." The wondrous tales of Rabbah bar 734 et seq. 584:



Hanah. 744 Legends about Leviathan, and about the wonderful changes in the days of Messiah. 121a: Connection of the celebration of the fifteen th of Ab (end of Mishnali Ta'anit), with the reconciliation between the Benjamites and the rest of the

Israelites.

The Gemaras also contain the following interesting homiletic interpretation of Biblical passages: ii.

1:

first,

"Hitkosheshu wakoshu" ("Gather

Kash-

Num. xxi. 27 " Al ken yomeru hammoshelim bo'u Heshbon" ("Wherefore they that speak in provCome ye to Heshbon "), " Thus shall erbs say, '



'

'

they that control themselves say, Come, let us reckon and compare the material loss caused by a good act with the reward, and the gain obtained through sinning, with the punishment; then thou wilt be built up and firmly established " (784, a play on "mashall," which also means "to rule," and on "heshbon "= " reckoning "). Prov. xv. 15: "All the days of the poor are troublesome " this applies to the students of Gemara " but he who is of a cheerful heart hath a continual this applies to the students of the Mishnah feast " '

'

— —

—

(1454).

The commentary

of Rashi on the Babylonian TalBatra ends at the beginning of chap. iii. place is taken by that of his grandson, Rabbi

mud Baba its

Samuel



b. Mei'r ("

Rashbam "), from

ch.

iii.

to the

end of the massekta. Bibliography



Hiddushe Oeonim on Baba gamma and B. Hlddwshe B. Solomon b. Adret on

Mezi'a, Salonica, 1728

Baha Kamma,



Berlin,' 1750; Bezalel

Asbkenazi, Shittah

Mekuhbezet on Baha Kamma, Baba Mezi'a, and Baba Batra Nahmanides (Ra'mban), Baha Batra Maimonides,

xi., xli., xiil.; Jacob ben Asberi, Tur Hosthen Mishpat, p. exxxv. to end Moses Benjamin, Ma'aseh Babhahbarlfanah; E. Guttmacher, Bab, on The Tales of Zapltcnath Pa'ayiedh, on tbe same.

Mishneh Torah, books



'

M. F.

BR.

J.

BABA

BTJCH

Judaeo-German translation or adaptation by Elias Levita of an Italian version of the Anglo-Roman romance, " Sir Bevis of Hamton." The Italian version of this, entitled "Buovo d'Antona," was very popular no less than thirty edi:

—

known

of it, five of them before 1507, when Elias Levita translated it into Judaeo-German. His exact object in making this translation is not tions being

quite clear it may have been merely as a pastime or as a sort of literary curiosity, but it had become recognized by the authorities in Rome that the German Jews could be reached only through their own and there may, therefore, have been a condialect versionist motive at the root of this translation, as well as of the Judaeo-German translation of the Bible which was made simultaneously and among the same However the case may be, the book proved circles. very popular. After its first publication at Isny or Venice about 1540, it was republished at Prague in



and was reprinted at Frankfort-on-the-Main Amsterdam in 1721, at Wilhelmsdorf in 1724 and became especially popular among Jewish women, for whom it was almost the sole romance in any accessible literary form. To them it was familiar as the "Bovo Buch," which was closer to the Italian original, and is probably the true transliteration, though Steinschneider transliterates it "Baba 1660

like.

Zeph.

thyself

"

").

kak kashshet aherim" ("Imand then improve others ")



the Prophets is Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, and the twelve minor Prophets. Kings is followed by Jeremiah because Kings ends with the Exile, and Jeremiah deals with the same subject; Ezekiel precedes Isaiah, because the former ends with the rebuilding of the Temple, and Isaiah's prophecies throughout contain comforting hopes and promises. 146

shet 'azmeka, ve-ahar



in 1691, at

Buch"

("Cat. Bodl." col. 934).

The source

of this

popular work remained a literary puzzle until it was solved by J. Zerlner in 1863, who gave conclusive evidence of its derivation from the old English ro-

mance

in its Italian form.

evidence of the

word

its

Among

other pieces of

Italian origin he points out the use of

" solfa,"

misprinted in the edition as nS^IO-