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THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

and imperious attitude toward other zaddikim

in

southwestern Russia, notably in his great conflict with Shneor Zalman of Lyady.

Baruch was the typical latter-day zaddik of the with all his unattractive and unsympathetic features, a proud ecclesiastic, who traded upon his supposed holiness, and aimed only at power, honors, and wealth. He was probably to a great "Ukraine,

extent responsible for the rapid degeneration of the

Hasidim. Bibliography:

Shem

S.

Dubnow,

tia-Gedolim

hphraim,

pp. 62, 94;

Ma aseh Zaddikim,

In Voskhod, 1890, xil. 125 et seq.; he-Hadash, Via; Deqel Mahaneh Seder ha-Dorat he-Hadmh, pp. 23,25;

pp. 13 et seq., 24 et seq.: Gottlober, in Or, 1880, p. 312; A. Kahanab, Rabbi Israel Ba'al Jitomir, 1900, p. 4, note 2 ; M. Nacbeles, Ein naieMaase fun Rabbi Baruchil, Lemberg, 1893; Zederbaum, Keter Kehunah, p. 101 Rodkinson, Toledot Ba'al

Haboker

Gam

Shem-Tob,



Shem-Tob,

p. 78.

k.

H. R.

BARTJCH TJZIEL Baruch Uziel.

B.

BARUCH.

See

Form,

BARUCH YAVAN erez

(called also Baruch MeYavan-Baruch of the Land of Russia)

Polish financier; agent of the Polish prime minister Count Bruhl born at Starokonstantinov, government of Volliynia, in the beginning of the eighteenth century; died probably between 1770 and 1780. His

name was David ben Shachneh, his brother's name Shachneh, and according to his own statement (letter to Jacob Emdeu, September, 1758) he was a father's

descendant of the celebrated rabbi Shalom Shachneh of Cracow, the founder of the yeshibah of Lublin, who died in 1558. He received an education far superior to that of the Polish Jews of his time. He was well versed in Talmudic literature; spoke

and wrote Hebrew,

German, and probably French. By his accomplishments and address he won the favor of the extravagant Count Bruhl, who virtually ruled Poland in the reign of August III. Polish,

This enabled him to exert his influence and with the nobles (see Jacob Emden,"Torat ha-Kenaot") in behalf of his coreligionists, who at this time had to endure much at the hands of the Catholic clergy and the merchants. When the teachings of the pseudo-Messiah Shabbethai Zebi began to spread through South Russia, Baruch took an active part in the fight against them. In 1751, as may be seen from his letter to Aryeh Loeb of Amsterdam, he prosecuted the prominent members of the Shabbethaian sect, Abraham Hayyim (ben Hayyim) of Lublin, and his son Hayyim, the former being one of the directors (" parnas ") of the Council of the Four Lands, which was then being held at Starokonstantinov. The wealthy and influential Abraham having the support of many 1733 to 1763.

at the Polish court

rabbis and of the members of the council, Baruch had to use the influence of the secretary of the Polish treasury, Shidlinsky, who ordered Abraham's arrest, and censured the rabbis, pointing out the great danger which sectarianism might bring to the Jewish religion. He ordered them to obey Baruch Yavan, and to present to the next council his son Hayyim, who had taken to flight. Abraham sought to bribe Baruch Yavan to drop the case, but Baruch rejected his offer with contempt, and spent considerable the prosecution of the sectarians (see "Torat ha-Kenaot," pp. 123-127).

money

in

Baruch, Simon Baruoh b. Zebi Hirsch

When the zealous Bishop Dembowsky of Kamenetz-Podolsk, after a religious disputation which he had ordered to be held between the rabbis and the Frankists, or followers of Jacob Frank, the reckless apostle of Shabbethai Zebi, instructed his agents to seize copies of the Talmud and to bring them to Kamenetz-Podolsk, Baruch implored the aid of Count Bruhl, who advised him to apply to the papal nuncio Nicholas Serra. Before instructions were received from Rome, thousands of copies of the Talmud were burned, and it is hard to say how far this persecution of the Jews would have been carried had not the zealous bishop suddenly died, November, 1757. On another occasion, when, owing to the machinations of the Frankists, the blood accusation was brought against the Jews, Baruch exerted all his energy to ward off danger from his hunted people, being one of the most prominent counsel before the nuncio, who reported the case to the pope (A. Kraushaar, "Frank i Frankisci Polscy," Cracow, 1895; Emden, "

'Edut be-Ya'akob "). When Russia began to interfere more actively in Polish affairs, and Frank who had been kept in prison seeking, in January, 1768, to obtain his release by securing Russian influence in his favor, despatched his agents to Moscow armed with recommendations from influential persons in Warsaw, Baruch, who was informed as to Frank's movements, forestalled his emissaries. Baruch was then in St. Petersburg, where he enlightened the Polish representatives as well as those of the Russian authorities. From a letter written by Judah Loeb of Pinchov to Jacob Emden, it is evident that Baruch

—

—

exercised considerable influence among the officials of St. Petersburg. The Jew Bima Speier of Mohilev, who had thorough command of the Russian language

and was posted in all Russian affairs and in Russian history and literature, labored actively with him in exposing the Frankists (see Judah of Pinchov 's letter in Emden's " Hitabkut " and in Gratz's " Frank und die Fraukisten," Supplement 7, pp. 33 et seq.). Baruch succeeded in convincing the Russian synodial authorities that Frank, who had four times changed his religion and was trying to change it for the fifth time, was pursuing merely selfish aims, and, being a follower of the pseudo-Messiah Shabbethai Zebi, could never make a faithful Christian. The agents of the Frankists returned home without having accomplished anything, and had even great difficulty in getting away from Russia, being without the hopedfor protection and without the necessary passports. "Covered with shame," they returned to Poland in March, 1768. Of the further career of Baruch nothing is known, nor are any data extant of the life of his son Lazar, who in 1758 married the daughter of Jacob Emden, as is evident from his letter to Emden, published in "Shot-la-Sus," p. 5. Bibliography: A. Kraushaar, Frank i Frankisci Polscy, Cracow, 1895 Jacob Emden, Torat ha-Kenaot, pp. 123-127 and passim; idem, 'Edut be-Ya'akoh, Shot-la-Sus, p. 5 and passim Gratz, Frank und die Frankisten, Supplement 7, pp. 33 et seq. S- Dubnow, Jakov Frank i Yevo Sekta Christianstmmshchikh, in Vos. 1883, viii. and ix. H. R.





BARTJCH

B.

ZEBI HIRSCH A casuist



lived

Poland at the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth. He wrote " Shein