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Bahia Bahrain

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Blind, or in his school (compare Bahya ben Asher's the Pentateuch, Ex. xxiv.). The

commentary on first sentence,

DW^O

Kin

TH3

TIN 1ST *6 nnjn,

" And now men see not the light which is bright in the skies " (Job xxxvii. 21), being isolated, and having no connection with what follows, is taken to be an esoteric allusion to the blindness of its author (compare Landauer, in " Literaturblatt des Orients," vi. 215; Jellinek, "Auswahl," p. 14). The "Bahir" assumes the form and style of an exegetic Midrash on the first chapters of Genesis. It is divided into sixty short paragraphs, and is in the form of a dialogue between master and disciples. The names which occur most frequently are those of Rehiima, R. Amorai, and R. Berekiah, who are otherwise unknown. Except in the first sentence, the name of Nehunya ben ha-Kanah is never mentioned. The world, according to the "Bahir," is not the product of an act of creation. Like God, it existed from all eternity, not only in potentialIts View of ity, but in actuality and the Creation Creation, consisted merely in the appearance of that which was latent in the first " Sefirah," " Or ha-Ganuz," or, as it is called, " Keter 'Elyon," which emanated from God. This Sefirah

gave birth to " Hokmah " (Wisdom), from which emanated " Binah " (Intelligence). From these three, which are the superior "Sefirot "or "Ma'amarot," and form the primary principles of the universe, emanated, one after another, the seven inferior Sefirot from which all material beings are formed (compare Pirke R. El. iii., D^iyn K13J nilDXD H1W3 li^lO ilB'i'EOl, "Through ten ma'amarot the world was created, which are reduced to three," etc.). All the ten Sefirot are linked one to the other, and every one of them has an active and a passive quality emanating and receiving. The efflux of one Sefirah from another is symbolized in the form of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Thus the gimel (J), shaped like a tube open at each end, represents a Sefirah, which receives strength at one end and discharges it The ten Sefirot are the energy of God, at the other. the forms in which His being manifests itself. The " Bahir " adopts metempsychosis and solves it the question why the just suffer in this world, while the wicked are prosperous: "The just may have been wicked in their former lives, and the wicked righteous " (§ 58). These are the main theories developed in the "Bahir," with many digressions of parables and mystic explanations of diverse precepts and of letters and vowels. The influence of the Similarity " Sefer Yezirah " is evident. The most striking example of its dependence to the Sefer on the " Sefer Yezirah " is its explana-

by

'

'

Yezirah."

tion of the raising of the hands (" nesiat kappayim") by the priests in pronounc-

ing the benediction "bahir," §48. •Viry D'TJ j-VNI Dltl'D pi-pad

"v?

TBI

1.

3.

1J» HD'Sd PVVBD

"Its'?

nijm«

" Because the hands, having ten fingers, allude to the ten Seflrot."

"Yezirah," -IIPJ7

" The ten

belimah (out ot naught) are analogous to the ten fingers." '

Seflrot

Although, considered by itself, the " Bahir " is a dull work, full of contradictions and one of the most

obscure of books, it is very important for the history of the development of Jewish mysticism being a

rough outline of what the Zohar was

An

Outline destined to be. The fact that the titles of both are synonyms one drawn Zohar. from the verse in Job (xxxvii. 21), " which is bright [' bahir '] in the skies " the other, from a similar verse in Daniel

—

of the



"And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness [' ke-zohar '] of the firmament " is very suggestive. Another interesting point in the "Bahir" is the strange emphasis laid upon a celestial trinity, which became even more accentuated in the later cabalistic writings ("Bahir," §48). (xii. 3),

—

Bibliography

Landauer, in Literaturblatt cles Orients, vi. 214; Milsanagi, Bahia, p. 20; Jellinels, Beitriiae zur Philosophic vmt Kahbala,i. 72; Zunz, G. V. p. 417; Ehrenpreis,

EntirU'hfhnnj der Emanatiniislehre in der Kabbala des XIII. Jahrhunderts, pp. 20-24; Gratz, Geseh. der Juden, vii., note 3 Bloch, in Winter and Wunsche, Jtidische

D-ie



Literatur, k.

257-260.

iii.

I.

BAHRAM BAHRAM

GOR.

Be.

See Pebsia.

TSHTJBIN

("

The Wooden ")



Per-

king of Persia from June 27, 590, to June 26, 591. Hormiz IV. (578-590), through his cruelty, brought the empire to the brink of destruction. His subjects were dissatisfied; and the political enemies of Persia entered its territory and posThe Jews were sessed themselves of the country. barbarously persecuted at the instigation of the Magi, and the academies of Sura and Pumbedita were closed. Bahrain, after having delivered his country from the enemies, rose against the unworthy king, dethroned him, and threw him into prison, in which he was murdered in 590. At first, Bahrain governed in the name of Prince but soon ascended the throne in his Chosroes II. own name. The Jews of Persia and Babylonia seem to have hailed him as their deliverer, for the Byzantine historian Theophylactus Simocatta tells us that they supported him with troops and money against the Persian nation, which turned toward Chosroes II. (Parviz), the heir of Hormiz, though the Persian and Arabic sources know nothing of this. Bahrain showed himself grateful to the Jews, and the reopening of the academy at Pumbedita under sian general





of which Sherira speaks, may be due to the benevolence which Bahrain showed those who had aided him. Unfortunately Bahrain's rule did not last. Maurice, the Byzantine emperor, to whom Prince Chosroes had fled, sent an army with which the Persians united to make war upon Bahrain, and the Jews paid dearly for their attachment to the usurper. At the capture of Mahuza, a town containing a large Jewish population, the Persian general Mebodes put the greater part of the Jews to death. Bahrain's army was vanquished, and he himself compelled to take refuge with the Huns.

Mar bar Rab Hanan,

Sherira's letter in Neubauer, Medieval Jew. De Sacy, Memoire sur Diverses Antiquites de la Perse, pp. 395 et seq.; NBldeke, Geseh. der Perser und Araber, pp. 270 et sea., pp. 474 et seq.; Justi, Geseh. des Alten Persiens, pp. 235 el seg.; Gratz, Geseh. der Juden, v., note 3, pp. 428 et seq.

Bibliography Chronicles,

g.

i.



35, line 4



I-

Bn.