Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 2.pdf/509

459 In speaking of the gratuitous keeper, the text says: " If the thief be found, he shall pay twofold " (Ex. xxii. 6 [A. V. 7]). must he pay? Ordinarily he must pay the owner but if such keeper or any other bailee has already for any reason satisfied the owner, the right in the stolen thing enures to such bailee, and the thief must give him the bailee, not the owner the double compensation

Whom



—

—

M.

Maimonides, "Yad," Genebah, iv. The provisions for a guilt-offering and for the

(B.

iii.l;

titution of one-fifth in addition to the value

8).

res-

by a

bailee, in Lev. v. 21-26 (A. are also discussed in the Mishnah and TalFor this phase of the subject see Embezzle-

faithless

V.

but repentant

vi. 1-7),

mud. ment. IV.

What has been said in Assault and Batas to the qualification of the judges applies with even greater force to the trial of causes arising out of the loss or destruction of property left in the hand of bailees. For thrice in the verses of Ex. xxii. (7, " Elohim " 8, bis), which refer to a deposit, the title of

tery

—

—

God or gods is given to the judges Distinction they must therefore be ordained j udges Between who have received their " semikah " Compensa- (ordination) in the Holy Land from an unbroken line of ordained elders. tion and Penalty. Nevertheless, in the Babylonian Talmud (B. M. 966 and elsewhere) reports of cases are given in which one or the other of the chief rabbis at Sura or Mata Mahasia of the Babylonian academies decide cases of bailment but in no case does the judge award a double compensation none but an ordained judge would have attempted The Hoshen to impose such a penalty ("kenas"). Mishpat also, while it only deals with the law as

actually practised at a much later period, discusses (291-305 and 340-347) the responsibilities of the four kinds of bailees without referring to double compensation or to the penalty of one-fifth which, under the ordinance in Leviticus, the repentant bailee was to

add

to the principal.

This article follows in the main the guidance Maimonides in Yad ha-Hazakah, She'elah u-Pikadon, and Sekirut. The Talmud deals with the subject in chapters Hi., Bailments vii. andviii.oi BaaaMezVa. The Talmudic law of has been treated by the following modern authors I. M. RabIntroduction, ii., Thalmud, du Civile Legislation binowicz, pp. 64^84, Paris, 1877 Spiers, School System of the Talmud,

Bibliography



of





pp. 58-106, London, 1898.

j

L. N. D.

sk.

BAIRAMCHE. BAJA City on

See Bessarabia.

the Danube, in the county of Bacs-Bodrog, Hungary. As early as the end of the eighteenth century, Baja, owing to its favorable locaThe first tion, was a bustling commercial town. Jewish families probably settled there toward the

middle of that century and formed a small commuThe great conflagration that swept over the nity. city,

Bailments Baja

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

459

May

1,

1840, destroyed the

synagogue and. the

Jewish school, together with the communal archives, so that no reliable data remain concerning the organization of the community and the first decades of its' The first entries in the old " Hebra " book existence.

March 6, 1791, the names being those of the persons deceased in 1789. The beginnings of community therefore probably do not date much are dated

earlier.

One of the earliest rabbis, and perhaps the very was Isaac Krieshaber (later in Paks); and he was succeeded in 1794 by Isaiah Moorberg, or, as he

first,

Kahane, who devoted himself to and resigned in 1805. The com-

calls himself, Isaiah

cabalistic studies,

munity then chose

for its rabbi Mei'r

name abbreviated from"Eisenstadt"), for his piety, firm character,

Ash

(a sur-

distinguished

and Talmudic learning.

He was an

intimate friend of Gotz Schwerin, a considerably older man, who had settled at Baja a few years earlier. In order to enable his friend to succeed to the rabbinate, Ash resigned his office in 1815, continuing his rabbinical activity in other circles. Under the new rabbi the community grew in numbers and reputation, becoming one of the most flourishing and important in the whole district. In the midst of this prosperity, that boded well for the future of the community, a conflagration occurred in Baja, as stated above, which destroyed 2,000 houses, the synagogue, the communal house, the school, the hospital (that also served as a shelter The for homeless strangers), and the bath-house. whole city, in fact, was a mass of smoking ruins. All the -members of the community, except three,

were rendered destitute. GOtz Schwerin (now an octogenarian) found refuge in a house on the outskirts of the city.

He

manifested an untiring activand the rebuilding of the

ity in the relief of his flock synagogue, appealing to

communities and rabbis and to his many friends and disciples both at home and abroad. His efforts were very The successful, and he received large contributions. scattered members of the community returned, and were joined by others who were attracted by the busi-

far

and

near,

ness activity incident to the rebuilding of the city. Within two years the new synagogue was begun. Some influential members took this occasion to press for the introduction of changes in the ritual which they had seen adopted in the progressive synagogue of Budapest. Schwerin offered little opposition and the Orthodox interior arrangement was therefore abandoned, and a modern order of services adopted, which subsequently served as model for many other

communities.

The new building was dedicated

Jacob Steinhardt, rabbi of Arad, delivered the address in Hungarian, while Schwerin lighted the perpetual lamp and pronounced the benAfter thirty-six years of beneficial activediction. He was succeeded ity, Schwerin died Jan. 15, 1852. by Moses Nascher, upon whose death, Feb. 13, 1878, Dr. Leopold Adler was called to the rabbinate. With the reform of the services, reform of the system of education went hand in hand. In the Sept. 26, 1845.

congregation established an elementary in 1846 under the name of " Israelitische Deutsch-Ungarische Primar Schule. " This school con sisted of four classes. Em even by attended was it teachers, ploying superior non-Jews, and stood high with the educational authirties the

school,

which was reorganized

In the fifth decade the community also thorities. In all its intellectual established classes for girls. endeavors it was supported by the old TalmudTorah Society, which attended to the poor and took In 1901 the comits share of the communal burdens. munity supported a kindergarten, a primary school for boys

and

girls (four classes),

and a grammar