Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 2.pdf/527

477 477

Balm

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Baltic

The words in Jer. lii. 16, " Nebuzar-adan, the captain of the guard, left the poor of the land to be vine-dressers and husbandmen," are referred, in

Jews were

Shab. 26a, to the gatherers of the opobalsamum in the neighborhood of Engedi and Eamata. Jerome

in the victory of the former.

also, in his

commentary

to Cant.

i.

slain and their property seized by both After this uprising war broke out between Russia and Turkey, lasting some years and ending

sides.

14, refers the

" vineyards " there mentioned to the Balsam plantations of Engedi (compare Eusebius, "Onomasticon,"

"Engedi"). With what feeling the Eomans looked upon the Balsam of Judea may be learned from the fact that Vespasian and Titus exhibited the Balsam shrub of Judea as one of the trophies at their triumphal procession (Pliny, I.e.); but no less characteristic are the rabbinical ordinances " Blessed be the Lord who has created fragrant trees," recited only over either the opobalsam belonging to the liouse of Rabbi Judah of Tiberius or the one belonging to the imperial house of Rome; and the benediction recited over the oil of the opobalsam: " Blessed be the Lord who created the (fragrant) oil of our land," or, according to one authority, simply " fragrant oil " (Ber. 43a see Rashi, I.e. and Musafia s.v.



,



j'DD^QIBlX, where the name "Jericho,'' of the Balsam, is combined with the " reah " Many passages fragrant odor).

to 'Aruk,

as the

s.v.

home

=

noun in the

Talmud and Midrash mention opobalsam

(pODISX) as used for the anointment of kings (Yer. Sotah viii. 22c), or as an alluring ointment employed by the frivolous women of Jerusalem (Lam. R. to iv. 15), or as a merchandise (Yoma 39a), or by thieves as a means of scenting the strong boxes of rich people (Sanh. 109a), or as carried about in a flask (Gen. R. x.xx., xxxix., and elsewhere); and

mention of streams of opobalenjoyment of the righteous in the world to come (Yer. Ab. Zarah iii. 42c Ta'anit 25a; compare Apoc. Paul xxiii., xxviii.). there- is also special

sam

oil

which flow

for the

'

Bibliography: Cheyne and Black, Encyc. Winer, B. B. s. v.

Bihl.

». v.

Bairn



A



Bibliography



BalinsM

i

Lipimki, Starozytna Polsha,

iii.

Uman

ve-Ukraina. 476; Ma'asse Gedolah min Gczerat Wilna, 1846; extract ot same published in H. J. Gurland's ha-Gezerot 'ol Yisrael, pp. 75-77, Odessa, 1893; Khronika Vnskhoda, 1882, Nos. IB, 17, 34; Bazsvyet, 1882; Russki Yevrei, 1882 Brockhaus-Ellron, Encyclopedia (Rus-

Swot K-

J. sit.

By the treaty of Jassy, in 1791, Balta came, with other Turkish cities, under the domination of Russia. In 1797 Balta was made a district town of the government of Podolia. Commerce in grain and horses largely developed, and the Jewish population increased, until in 1890 the number of the Jews in Balta was about 27,000 (79 per cent of the total popThe number of synagogues ulation of the town). and houses of prayer was seventeen. In 1882, at the time of anti-Jewish riots (see Pogromy) in South Russia, the riot in Balta, March 30, surpassed all others in extent and violence and attained mournful celebrity among the Jews of Europe and America. letter sent by the committee organized to succor the destitute Jews of Balta, to the editor of the "Voskhod," on April 9, and signed by the rabbi, runs as follows " Balta is turned into a desert. All the merchandise and household goods of the [JewThe number of ish] inhabitants are plundered. wounded reaches two hundred, of whom three have already died. The loss of property amounts to one and one-half million rubles. More than 5,000 famiMothers and daughters were lies are utterly ruined. violated." But in reality the calamity was much greater, for this information was published under Russian censorship, and the hands of the Russian officials, especially those of the minister Ignatiev, were not innocent of the blood spilled in Balta. It is an established fact that the anti-Semites among the authorities secretly encouraged the rioters. In later years the commerce of Balta, consisting mainly of the export of grain to Odessa, has declined.



BALTA A

sian),

town

in Russia, situated near the

Rumanian and Turkish frontiers. Its Jewish community dates from about the middle of the eightWhen Balta was founded, it was eenth century. divided into a Polish part, called " Josephgrod," under the dominion of Poland, and a part called "Balta," under the rule of Turkey, the River Kodyma separating these districts and serving as boundary line bet-ween them. Jewish settlements

were established

in

both sections when the rebellion

of the Cossacks or the Haidamaks broke out in 1768. These bandits perpetrated a terrible massacre among the Poles and Jews of Uman and its neighborhood. large number of Jews sought to flee to the frontier town Balta, seeking the protection of the TurkThe Haidamaks pursued and overish government.

A

took a part of them in the open steppe near Balta, and slaughtered them ([Tammuz] July, 1768). The Jewish community of Balta sent messengers offering a large amount to redeem from the bandits the bodies of the slain, in order to bury them according But the Jews of Balta themselves to Jewish rites. were made to feel the heavy hand of the Haidamaks. A new band entered Balta and was opposed by a regiment of Tatars, but during the struggle many

ii.

820.

S.

H. R.

BALTHAZAR,.

M. D.

See Bei.shazzar.

BALTHAZAR, OROBIO DE CASTRO.

See

Castro, Balthazar Orobio de.

BALTIC PROVINCES The three Russian governments bordering the Baltic sea Courland, Livonia, and Esthonia; belonging formerly to Sweden, with the exception of Courland, which was a dependency of Poland and came into possession of Russia, in part at the beginning of the eighteenth The Jewish century, and the remainder in 1809. population was (1897) about 100,000, out of a total

—

population of 2,386,998. The Jews of the Baltic Provinces differ considerably from other Russian Jews. Their habits, language, and dress are generally much like the German, and, being less crowded and more prosperous than their Lithuanian or Polish coreligionists, their physical

development

is

more

satisfactory.

The

average height of the Baltic Jews called to military service is 163-164 centimeters, while that of the Polish-Lithuanian is only 161-162. In the cities near the German boundary they are more Germanized than in those adjoining Lithuania and White Rus