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627 pp. 884 et seq. into English by Tobias Goodman; and into Polish by J. Tugendhold. According to Luzzatto ("Hotam Toknit," Appendix, p. 5), Bedersi was also the author of the poem " Bakkaskat, ha-Lamedin (The Lamed Prayer), or " Bet El "(The House of God), or " Batte Minor Nefesh " (Tablets), a prayer composed Works. of 412 words in which only the letters

"'

" alef "

from composition

Abraham

is

commonly

to "

lamed " occur. This attributed to his father,

Another poem, entitled "Elef Alfin " (Thousand Alefs), composed of 1,000 words, each of which begins with the letter "alef," also attributed to Abraham Bedersi, seems to have been Bedersi.

written by Jedaiah. In this poem the author bewails the sufferings and the exile of the Jews, which can only refer to the banishment of the Jews from France in 1306 (compare Luzzatto, I.e.; "ShemhaGedolim," ii. *.». Gratz," Gesch. der Juden," vii. 206). Bedersi also wrote a large number of treatises on philosophj', several of which are quoted by Moses ibn Habib in the introduction to his commentary on the "Behinat ha-'Olam." Seven of these works are (1) " Annotations on the still extant in manuscript: Physics of Averroes " (De Rossi MS. No. 1398) (2) " Annotations on the Canon of Avicenna " (MSS. Oxford, Nos. 2100, 2107, and 2121, 6) (3) " Ketab liaDa'at " (Treatise on the Intellect), a modification of the Hebrew version (entitled "Sefer ha-Sekel we ha-Muskalat ") of Alfarabi's Arabic work, " Kitab al'Aklwe al-Ma'akulat " (4) 'Ha-De'ot be-Sekel haHomri " (The Theories Concerning the Material Intellect), in which Bedersi gives the diverse opinions on







the Passive Intellect as

expounded by

Aristotle in

"De Anima" (compare Alexander of Afhrodisias):

Bedersi

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

627

"Ha-Ma'amar be-Hafoke ha-Mehallek" on the Opposites in the Motions of the

(5)

(Treatise

Spheres), explaining a passage in the commentary of Averroes on Aristotle's "DeCcelo," i.

Philosophical

4;

(6)

"Ketab ha-Hit'azmut " (Book

of Consolidation), in which Bedersi answers the objections made by a friend of his to the theories ex-

Works.

pounded in the preceding work (7) a dissertation, bearing no title, on the question whether individuals of the same species, diverse in their "accidents,"

differ also in their essential

form



or whether

form

inherent in the species and embraces it entirely, so that individuals differ solely by reason of their " accidents." In Bedersi's opinion there are two forms: a general one embracing the whole species and a

is



form which is essential and can not be considered as an "accident." In this disserspecial individual tation is quoted

another

work

of

his

Bedersi's,

"Midbar Kadmut" (The Desert of Antiquity), containing a commentary no longer in existence on the twenty-five premises given by Maimonides in his introduction to the second volume of the " Guide of

—

—

the Perplexed."

It is

probable that Bedersi wrote a

supercommentary on the commentary on Genesis by Ibn Ezra (compare Steinschneider, " Cat. Bodl." col. 1283), and that he was the author of the philosophical poem on the thirteen articles of belief of Maimonides (compare Luzzatto, "Hotam Toknit," p. 2).

Bedikab.

467; Dukes, In Literaturhlatt des Orients, 1851, p. 369 Carmoly, ibidem, 1850, p. 271 Luzzatto, ibidem, 1850, p. 817 Joseph Weiss, in Stern's edition of the Behinat ha~Olam Munk, in Archives Israelites, Jan., 1847 idem, Melanges, pp. 495, 496; Sylvestre de Sacy, in Magasin Encyclopedique, Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. cols. 1281-87 ; idem, iii. 315-357; Hebr. Uebers. p. 110; Neubauer, Yedaya de Bezicrs, in Revue Etudes Juives, xx. 244 et seq.; idem, in Zunz Jubelschrift, pp. 138-140; Gratz, Gesch. der Juden, vii. 269; Ben Chananja,Woi, p. 636; Renan-Neubauer, Lcs Ecrivains Juifs Francais, pp. 2-57 ; Gross, Gallia Judaiea, pp.101-103 ; Chotzner, Yedaya Bedaresi, in Jewish Quarterly Review, viii. 414 et seq.





G.

I.

BEDFORD



of Bedfordshire,

The



304, 2o0,

ill.

287

383,464

capital of the county situated on the River

England;

Jews at Bedford is entered on the pipe-rolls of 31 Henry I. (1185), when Solomon and Jacob, Jews of Bedford, paid a large sum to the king to recover a debt (Jacobs, " Jews Prom this time onof Angevin England," p. 85). ward the names of Jews from Bedford occur sporadically in the records, some of the Jews migrating to other places, as Hitchin, Thetford, and Essex. Ouse.

earliest notice of

Seven Jews of Bedford contributed £1 the

"

donum "

of the

Jews

of

8s. in

1194 to

England toward the

ransom of Richard I. (Jacobs, ib. p. 163) and among the names mentioned in the Bedford list was that of a Jewess named "Fleur de Liz." In 1202 a curious charge was brought against

Bonefand, a Jew of Bedford, for the "ementulation " of Richard, nephew of Robert of Sutton, by which the death of the same Richard was caused. The case was brought before a jury of the hundred and the Jew was acquitted. It seems probable that this was a case of conversion to Judaism on the part of Richard (Tovey, " Anglia Judaiea," p. 66). Throughout the thirteenth century Bedford continued to be one of the centers of the English Jewry it was one of the twenty -six towns where an Archa or chest was kept in which all chirographs involving indebtedness of Jews were registered and preserved, so that the king might know exactly how much each Jew was worth, and could thus claim his share of his property either at death or on occasion of tallage (" Papers of the Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition," p. 187). The Jews of Bedford appear to have lived in High street, as at the expulsion in 1290 there fell into the hands of the king two messuages in that street, formerly belonging to Cok Fil Benedict and Pictavus, Jews of Bedford. From his name the latter would appear to have been an immigrant from Poitou. He had two sons one of them,



Ely the other, Jacob, was hanged for felony and the messuage in High street belonging to him was given by the king to the crier of Newnham ("Transactions of the Jewish Hist. Benedict,

was baptized

at





Soc." ii. 86). In more recent times, since the return of

Jews

to

England, very few of them have settled in Bedford; those that have thus settled have been declared by Bedlegal process not entitled to the benefits of the ford charity, though Sir Philip Magnus is now one of the governors.

Bibliography Jacobs, Jews of Angevin England, Jacobs and Wolf, Bibliotheca Anglo-Judaica, No.

pp. 85, 97; 641.

J

BEDIKAH, npm

("examination," "investiga-

Term employed in the Talmud and ritual codes denoting the rigid scrutiny by means tion," in ritual law):

Bibliography Wolf, Bibliothcra Hchrcea, i. Zuoz, Literaturgesch. p. 498; idem, Z. G. pp.

BR.

Borough and