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682 Ben-Ze'eb Benaiah

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

mitted to the galaxy of brilliant scholars and pioneers of Haskalah, who were to some extent considered as the disciples and successors of Moses Mendelssohn. Later, for a.bout ten years, he lived in Breslau, where he wrote and published

Hebrew grammar, "Talmud Leslion

his

'Ibri," in 1796.

Two

years

pub-

later

he

lish edhisHebrew trans-

lation of Ecclesiasticus,

or

Ben

is

called

which by Delitzsch

Sirach,

("Zur Geschichte

der

Jiidischen Poesie,"

imitation

gnomic Judali

Lob Ben-Ze'eb.

of style.

is

Ben-

Vienna

Hebrew printing establishment

Anton Schmid, where he remained Ben-Ze'eb

Biblical

Ze'eb returned from Breslau to Cracow, and later settled in

as corrector in the

the author of

Hebrew poetry

p.

masterpiece of

110) a

till

of

his death.

many valued works;

marked by the purity of its diction and is not devoid of originality and prof un<31ty (Delitzsch, ib. ). He was the first to systematize, in the Hebrew language itself, Hebrew grammar, to arrange it methodically and to facilitate the mastery of a good style by introducing logic, syntax, his

is

prosody as part of grammatical studies. This accounts for the great success of his "Talmud Leshon Ibri, " which work is an immense improvement over former Hebrew grammars and a step toward the introduction of Western methods in Hebrew literature. It has since been republished with additions, annotations, and commentaries more than fifteen times, and is still the most popular Hebrew gjrammar in use among the Jews of eastern Europe. The Wilna edition of 1874, with the commentary " Yitron le-Adam " by A. B. Lebensohn, is the most improved, and has been republished several times. His second great work, the "Ozar ha-Shorashim," a Hebrew lexicon (based on a similar work by David and.

'

Kimhi), in which the roots are translated into German, went through six editions up to 1880, and has helped tens of thousands to become Gramfamiliar with the German language matical and with secular knowledge. It is Works. true that Ben-Ze'eb was not strictly scientific in the modern sense, and that lis works do not come up to the standard of Western Hebraists, even of his own time but great numbers have been taught by him to understand the language of the Bible and to express their thoughts in it, in localities and under circumstances in which other and more scientific means were not available. Ben-Ze'eb is easily the foremost grammarian among

the Galician Hebraists, the latter never attaining great prominence in the study of Hebrew (see Weisstoerg's " Die Neuhebraische Aufklarungsliteratur in Galizien," p. 30, Leipsic and Vienna, 1898). His clear and logical style, added to his exactness and thoroughness, renders him a favorite with lay readers and students alike. Ben-Ze'eb is the author also of " Melizah le-Purim," a collection of mock-prayers

683

selihot for Purim, which contain many clever parodies on familiar texts. This work has been often published with Kalonymus ben Kalonymus' celebrated Talmudical parody, "Maseket Purim." In his "Mebo" introduction to the Bible (which, since its first publication, has appeared in several editions of the Bible), Vienna, 1810 BenZe'eb follows the theories mainly of Johann GottBen-Ze'eb's " Mesillat ha-Limmud, fried Eichorn. for elementary scholars in Hebrew, has been translated into Italian by Leon Romani, Vienna, 1825; and into Russian by A. J. Papirno, Warsaw, 1871. " Torat Leshon 'Ibri, Hebraische Sprachlehre " is a German revision of his Talmud by S. J. Cohen, of which the first part appeared in Berlin in 1802, and three parts in Dessau in 1807. Five more editions appeared up to 1856. Ben-Ze'eb also contributed to the " Measefim " over the signature " J. L. C. " ( Judah Lbb Cracow). The memory of Ben-Ze'eb is abhorredby the as idim, who attribute to him the same miserable death which orthodox Christians assigned to Arius. Bibliography: Fiirst, Blbl. J.ud. i. 105, 106; Zeitlin, BllMotheca Hehraica, pp. 22-26 Fueim, Keneset Fisrael, p. 392 Gratz, Gesch. der Juden, 2d ed., xi. 122 Jost, Annalen,

and

—

—

H





1840,

ii.

62, 63.

P.

L. G.

BEN

ZITA.

Wl.

Eleazar ben Zita Abu'l

See

Saki.

BEN ZOMA

Tannaof the first third of the secfull name is Simon b. Zoma without the title " Rabbi " for, like Ben Azzai, he remained in the grade of "pupil," and is often mentioned together with Ben 'Azzai as a distinond century.



His



'

guished representative of this class (see Best 'Azzai). Like Ben 'Azzai, also, he seems to have belonged to the inner circle of Joshua b. Hananiah's disciples and a halakic controversy between them is reported in which Ben Zoma was the victor (Naz. viii. 1). His erudition in the Halakah became proverbial for it

was

dream

is

said,

"Whoever

sees

Ben Zoma

in his

assured of scholarship " (Ber. 576). He was, however, specially noted as an interpreter of the Scriptures, so that it was said (Sotah ix. 15), "With Ben Zoma died the last of the exegetes" ("darshanim"). Yet only a few of his exegetic sayings have been preserved. The most widely known of these is his interpretation of the phrase, "that thou mayest remember the day when thou earnest forth out of Egypt " (Deut. xvi. 3), to prove that the recitation of the Biblical passage referring to the Exodus (Num. xv. 37-41) is obligatory for the evening prayer as well as for the morning prayer. This interpretation, quoted with praise by Eleazar b. Azariah (Ber. i. 5), has found a place in the Haggadah for the Passover night. In a halakic interpretation Ben Zoma explains the word " naki " (clean) in Ex. xxi. 28 by referring to the usage of the word in every-day life (B. K. 41a; Kid. 566; Pes. 226). The principal subject of Ben Zoma's exegetic research was the first chapter of the Torah, the story of Creation. One of his questions on this chapter, in which he took exception to the phrase "God made " (Gen. i. 7), has been handed down by the Palestinian haggadists (though without the answer), with the remark, "This is one of the Biblical passages by which Ben Zoma created a commotion all over the world " (Gen. R. iv.). An interpretation of