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THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

ing Committee of the United Synagogue and as treasurer of Jews' College, more especially in his connection with the erection of the Central Synagogue, London.

Beddington originated the propothe acquisition of a new Jewish cemetery at Wiliesden, and he, with three other members, made himself responsible for the purchase of the ground. Bibliography: Je wish Chronicle, Nov. 1, 8, 15, 1873; Jewish sal for

W orld,

Nov.

S, 1873.

J-

G. L.

BEDDINGTON, MAURICE:

English com-

munal worker born in 1821 died at Carshalton Sept. Throughout his life he was identified with 9, 1898. most of the London communal institutions. He was one of the original members of the Board of Guardians and chairman of the Investigating Committee of the Board. He was a founder of the Central Synagogue and a life member of the council of the



United Synagogue. He served as chairman of the Building Committee, and was a vice-president of the Jews' Hospital and Orphan Asylum, to which institution he was a very generous benefactor. He was a member of the committee of the Anglo-Jewish Association, the Indigent Blind Society, and the Association for the Diffusion of Religious Knowledge. Beddington was a justice of the peace both for the county of Surrey and the county of London, besides being a founder of the City Liberal Club, and serving on the Political Committee. Bibliography: Jewish Chronicle,

Sept. 16, 1898.

i-

G. L.

BEDERSI

or

BEN ISAAC:

BEDARESI,

ABRAHAM

Provencal poet; born at Beziers (whence his surname "Bedersi" native of Beziers). The dates of his birth and death have not been ascertained. An elegy which he composed during his

—

upon the " Confiscation of the Books of the Law," is supposed by some scholars to refer to the burning of the Talmud in Paris about the year 1242 by others, to the confiscation of the Talmud in Aragon youth,

in 1264, as the direct result of the Barcelona controversy. If the latter view be correct, Bedersi may

well have nourished about the year 1240 (Zunz, "Z. G." p. 413). As appears from the letter sent by Bedersi to Don Vidal Solomon ("Hotam Toknit," p. 4), he went early (perhaps in 1273) to Perpignan, where he attended the lectures of Joseph Ezubi. He returned often to Perpignan and took an active part in its communal affairs. number of his letters, contained in MS. cviii (7'2 ) of the Vienna Hofbibliothek, are written to prominent Jews in Barcelona, asking them to aid their less fortunate coreligionists. At one time he lived at Aries, and in 1285, during the war of France with Roussillon, he took refuge in Narbonne. He seems at one time to have been rich, for in a poem he declares that he is independent and writes for his own pleasure. The compiler of his diwan relates that Bedersi sent money to the wandering poet Gorni (Luzzatto, Intro. to "Hotam Toknit," p. 4). Bedersi was a prolific writer. Several collections of his poems are still extant in manuscript in vari-

A

ous

libraries.

The most complete manuscript is Museum, Add. No. 27,168. This

that in the British

contains an elegy on the death of his relative, David

II.— 40

of Cabestan

Bedad Bedersi

several

poems and

addressed to al-Hasan Saul; poems dedicated to the physician of the king of Castile, Abu al-Hasan Men- ibn al-Harit; and the elegy mentioned above.

Todros Abulafia and

his

letters

companion,

Abu

Two of Bedersi's works were published, with an interesting introduction by Luzzatto, by Amsterdam, 1862:

(1) "

G Polak Hereb ha-Mithapeket (A Re-

volving Sword), a poem of 210 strophes, according to the numerical value of the word 8 -f 200 Tin 2. The author in this poem gives a brief account of Jewish poetry, the decadence of which he deplores. He praises the " makamat " (poems) of Hariri, which

=

+

he probably

knew through the translation of several by Al-Harizi. (2) " Hotem Toknit " (Who Seals the Sum; compare Ezek. xxviii. 12), a treatise on Hebrew synonyms. Another poetical work, entitled "Bakashat ha-Lamedin," published at Frankfort-onthe-Oder, 1812,

but

it is

was

Abraham Bedersi poem was written by his

attributed to

probable that this

son Jedaiah. Bedersi's poetical works are the best proof of the decadence of Jewish poetry at that time. His style is stiff and unintelligible, though he possessed a thorough knowledge of Hebrew.

Bibliography: Zunz, Z. G.

p. 483; Munk, in Archives IsKcrem Itemed, iv. 57 Griltz, Gesch. cler 97; Renan-Neubauer, Lea Rabbins Francais, pp. 710 eL seq. ; Gross, Gallia Judaica, p. 100 Bergmann, Aug den Brief en Abraham nedcrsi'n, in Monatxschrift, xlii. 507 et seq.; one of Bedersi's letters was published in 1765 by Solomon da Piera as an appendix to his collection of Hebrew synonyms, entitled Mashiyyot Kesef.

raelites, 1847, p. 67

Juclen, 3d ed.,





vii.



» BEDERSI

BK.

I.

or

BEDARESI, JEDAIAH BEN

ABRAHAM, surnamed the Orator (p^OH)

Poet, physician, and philosopher; born at Beziers (whence his surname Bedersi) about 1270; died about 1340. His Provencal name was En Bonet, which probably corresponds to the Hebrew name Tobiah (compare

"Oheb Nashim" in the "Zunz Jubelschrif t, " Hebrew part, p. 1); and, according to the practise of the Provencal Jews, he occasionally joined to his that of his father, Abraham Profiat (Bedersi). In his poems he assumed the appellation " Penini (Dispenser of Pearls), and because of this appellation the ethical work " Mibhar ha-Peninim " of Solomon ben Gabirol has been erroneously ascribed to Bedersi. Bedersi was a precocious child. He was scarcely fifteen years old when he published Early Life, his work "Bakkashat ha-Memim" (The Mem Prayer), a hymn of 1,000 words, each of which begins with the letter " mem " (translated into Latin and German). Bedersi's father, very much pleased with those evidences of his child's precocity, expressed his approbation in a short poem which in manjr editions is given at the end of the hymn. The work contains only mere quibbles on Biblical passages, and is often very obscure; but, considering the age of the author, the facility with which he handles the Hebrew vocabulary is astonishing. Bedersi's Talmudical knowledge must have been equally extensive; for, as may be seen in the introduction to his commentary on the Haggadah of the Talmud, he was but fifteen years old when he enAt tered the Talmudical school of R. Meshullam. the age of seventeen he produced his ethical work.

name