Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 2.pdf/593

543 543 "Lilian Gervais," a

drama

in three acts,

adapted

from the French play, " Marie Simon " " Married and Unmarried," a drama; ''The Bold Dragoons," a comic opera; "Mrs. G. of the Golden Pippin," an operetta and " Circumstantial Evidence, " a comedy.



Bibliography: The Era, April 13, 1R5fi; Modern Eur/. Hind. i. 174; Illust. London Xcws, xxv. 305 (1854) (le)it. May. (n. s. xlv. 54L J. G. L.

)

BARON, HENRY: Besancon

in

French painter; born at He was 1816; died at Geneva in 1885.

one of the foremost representatives of the historic genre in France, and depicted chiefly the lighter side of the social life of the Renaissance and of the rococo period. His paintings are distinguished by the facile and skilful touch suggestive of the French school of the eighteenth century and also by brilliancy of color, and great variety of detail. Among the best known of his works ma}' be mentioned:

"Andrea del Sarto Painting His Wife

as

Madonna

"Palestrina in the Midst of an Assemblage of Musical Ladies"; "Venetian Painters with Their Inamoratas Assembling in a Tavern upon the Great Canal to Celebrate the Feast of Their Patron, Saint Luke"; " An Assemblage upon the Green," and " Harvest-Festival in the Campagna. " Both of the last-mentioned works, as well as the wellknown water-color, "Feast in the Tuileries During the Paris Exposition of 1867," are in the Luxembourg Gallery. Baron's water-colors were deservedly popular and he is equally well known for his del Sacco";

A



numerous

works of J. J. RousBoccaccio," the "Adventures of

illustrations to the

seau, the "Tales of

Telemaque," and the "Fairy-Tales of Perrault." Baron received second-class medals in 1847-48 and in 1855 a decoration in 1859, and a third-class medal

He also reat the Universal Exposition of 1867. ceived several commissions from Napoleon III., among which were the water-colors, "The Official F£te," and two paintings, "The Bouquet," and " The Sense of Touch" placed over the entrance to the Ministry of the Interior. Bibliography: J. Meyer, Allgemeuies KUnstler, Lexikon; La Grande Encyclopedic

—

J.

s.

BARON DE HIRSCH FUND.

So.

See Hirsch

Fund, Baron be.

BARON, JONAS

Hungarian physician, surgeon, and lecturer on surgery at the University of

Budapest, Hungary; born at Gyijngyos Nov. 23, 1845 educated at Budapest. His father was secreIn tary of the Jewish community in GyongyOs. 1870 Baron acted as medical assistant to the various hospitals of Budapest; from 1871 to 1873 to the Jewish hospital there, of which institution he has since 1874 been senior surgeon. He is the author of a work on surgical pathology and therapeutics (Budapest, 1871), and of articles in the periodicals, "Orvosi Hetilap," "Gyogyaszat," and "Pester Medic.

Chirurg. Presse "—all of Budapest and in " Wiener Med. Presse" and "Wiener Med. Wochenschrift."

Bibliography: Aerzte, g

Barnett Barren

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

BioiirrtphiM'hcH

Lrxlcon Hcrvorragendcr

vi.

A. L. L. ,

BARREN, BARRENNESS:

The Hebrew

Cakar);

feminine, mpJJ

word

for " barren

"—

"IS>J>

— denotes probably

" uprooted," in the sense the family stock, and left to wither without progeny or successors. similar import attaches to the word " 'ariri " (from Tv»),

('akarah)

of being torn

away from

A

"bared," "stripped," translated "childless" in the A. V. and applied generally only to the male (Gen. xv. 2; Jer. xxii. 30; but see Lev. xx. 20, 21). A race that piously looked upon children as "an heritage from the Lord " (Ps. exxvii. 3), seeing in them sources of strength as well as of blessing " Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them " (ib. verse 5) " thy children, like olive-plants, round about thy table thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord " (Ps. exxviii. 3. 4) very naturally looked upon the opposite state of childlessness as a grave misfortune. The wife who presented her husband with no such Biblical tangible blessings or supporters felt Examples, that her aim in life had been missed. " Give me children or else I die " was the plea of Rachel (Gen. xxx. 1) when she saw Leah adding child after child to Jacob's household; and the desperate remedy for her own childlessness, suggested (ib. verse 3) and carried out (ib. verse 4), showed how keenly she felt her position. In a later age Peninnah taunted Hannah with her unfruitfulness, " provoked her sore, for to make her fret " (I Sam. i. Later yet, the best return that Elisha could make 6). to the Shunammite at the suggestion of Gehazi was to pray to the Lord for the termination of her

.

.

.

!

—

—

childlessness (II

Kings

iv. 16).

But the good sense of the people in the age of the Apocrypha, when intercourse with the world had brought broader views, drew a finer Change discrimination between mere prolificof Attitude ness and Barrenness. It took into acAfter Bible count the possibility that so many children might not always be so many Times. blessings; that sons and daughters might be bad as well as good. " Desire not a multitude of unprofitable children, " wrote Sirach " though

they multiply, rejoice not in them, except the fear better it is to die of the Lord be with them without children than to have them that are ungodly " (Ecclus. [Sirach] xvi. 1-3). The Book of Wisdom even asserts that there are better and more lasting monuments than children; intimating that it is better to have virtue than offspring, for the memorial of the former is immortal, known to both.

God and men (iv. 1 compare Isa. Ivi. 3-5). The Talmud marks another stage in the attitude of the popular mind toward Barrenness or childlessThe development of the Law, and the duty ness.

of teaching it diligently to one's children, brought additional pain to the heart of the pious but childless Jew, who gloried in the performance of all the

commandments, but found he could not impart them Such a one to "those who should come after him." is reckoned as if "menuddeh," cut off from all communion with God, like unto him who voluntarily disregards

all

the precepts of the

Law

(Pes. 113A);

accounted as already dead, together with the pauper, the leper, and the blind (Ned. 64 J), for all

he

is

"Weep the enjoyment that is left to him in life. sore for him that goeth away, that shall return no more nor see his native country " (Jer. xxii. 10), was