Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 6.djvu/79

49 commander-in-chief, although II Maccabees praises Gorgias' military ability. The Syrians were so sure of victory that they took with them a number of merchants, to whom they intended to sell the Jewish prisoners as slaves. The Syrians camped at Em- maus; and Gorgias was sent thence with 5,000 infantry and 1,000 horse to attack Judas by night, his guides being treacherous Jews. Judas had been informed of the expedition, and attacked the main Syrian army at Emmaus, completely routing it. Gorgias, not finding the enemy in camp, concluded they had retired into the mountains, and went in pursuit of them. Judas sagaciously kept his men from touching the booty, preparing them for the impending battle with Gorgias. When the latter returned to the main camp, he found it in flames, and the Jews ready for battle. The Syrians, seized with panic, fled into the Philistine territory, and only then did the Jews seize the rich spoils (166 B.C.). Gorgias did not again dare to enter Judea. Once when Judas and Simon Maccabeus were carrying the war outside of that country, two subordinate generals, Joseph and Azariah, in violation of orders undertook an expedition against Jamnia, but were severely beaten by Gorgias (I Mace. v. 18, 19, 55- 63), who is designated in " Ant." xii. 8, § 6, " general of the forces of Jamnia. " II Maccabees does not mention this expedition, but refers to another, and calls Gorgias "governor of Idumoea" (xii. 32), which seems to be more correct than " of Jamnia. " He set out with 3,000 infantry and 400 horse, and killed a number of Jews; whereupon a certain Do- sitheus of Tobiene (so the correct reading of the Syr- ian translation), one of those whom Judas had pro- tected against the pagans, threw himself upon Gor- . gias and seized his mantle, intending to take him prisoner ; but a Thracian horseman cut off Dositheus' arm and so saved Gorgias. The last-named then retired to Marissa (ib. verse 35; comp. "Ant." xii. 8, § 6), after which he is lost to view. Williich assumes (" Judaica," p. 33) from the description of the booty in I Mace. iv. 23 that " Holofernes " in the Book of Judith represents Gorgias. BIBLIOGRAPHY : Gratz, Gesch. li. 343, 357 ; Schurer, Gesch. 33 ed., 1. 205, 213 ; NIese, in Hormes, xxxv. 46B. G. S. Kk.

GOBIN, BERNABD (moot de plume, Isaac Goi- do) : Yiddish journalist; born in Lida, government of Wi'.na, April, 1868. He is the author of two short stories in Hebrew, " Ha-Naggar ha-Na'or " and "Ha- 'Agunah " (Warsaw, 1892). Gorin went to America about 1893, and has since been a regular contributor to the radical Yiddish press of New York. He has translated into Yiddish some of the works of Zola, Hawthorne, Maupassant, Prevost, and various Rus- sian authors. He has also written two dramas in that tongue, " Der Wilner Balebesel " (in reference to a famous hazzan) and " Baruch Spinoza " (1901). He edited " Judisch-Amerikanische Volksbibliothek," " Neuer Geist " (1898), and " Theater Journal " (1901- 1903), all now defunct.

Bibi.tography: Wiener, YUhlMi Literature in the Nine- teenth Centum, pp. 214. 224-22.5, New Tort, 1899 ; Hapgood, Spirit 0/ the Ghetto, pp. 219-232, a. 1902. II. n. "• ""^•

GORING OX: Two passagesin Exodus treat of an ox doing harm: the first of harm to a person vr. -4

(xxi. 28-32); the second to the ox of another owner {ib. 35-36). The verb used in the first passage is " nagah " (to gore) ; that in the second, " nagaf " (to strike or hurt). But, according to the tradition, the rules laid down in either passage apply to goring, striking with the body, biting, kicking, and lying on. These rules are also extended to animals othei' than oxen, either injuring or injured (B. K. i. 4): and, while the texts contemplate killing only, the rules apply to lesser injuries also.

In each of these passages a distinction is made between the ox which has not given evidence of its vicious character and one whose mas- ' ' Tarn " ter has been forewarned in this regard . and The former is known in the Mishnah as "Mu'ad." "tam" (lit. "innocent," "harmless"); the latter is called " mu'ad " (lit. " testi- fied"). An injury committed by an innocent ox is deemed a kind of accident ; while the master who is forewarned, but does not watch his beast, is liable for full damage, and, in case of the death of a hu- man being, to a mulct or forfeiture. To render an ox mu'ad, two witnesses must testify in court, in the presence of its owner, that the ox has on three separate days acted viciously. Acting thus to his kind or to other domestic animals does not render him mu'ad as to injury to persons; nor vice versa {ib. ii. 4).

An animal that kills a human being must be stoned to death : its flesh may not be eaten. But it should first be tried by a criminal court of Punish.- twenty -three judges; for the owner, meat. who is also morally guilty of homi- cide, can be tried only in such a court. Even a lion, bear, or wolf that kills a person must be so tried ; only a serpent should be killed by the first comer (Sanh. i. 4). "The ox of the stadium [arena] is not stoned: it is not he that gores; he is made to gore " (B. ?:. 39a).

Concerning the owner of a mu'ad the text says: "and his owner, also, shall be ptit to death; if there be laid upon him a ransom, then he shall give for the redemption of his life," etc. According to the rabbinic interpretation, the judges have no discre- tion as to putting to death or placing a ransom : they always place the ransom, which goes to the heirs of the decedent. But whose life is to be estimated ? R. Ishmael says, that of the person killed ; R. Akiba more logically says, that of the guilty owner, who redeems himself from death {ib. 40a). Hence Mai- monides draws the conclusion that where the ox belongs to two owners jointly, both of whom have been warned, each of them has to redeem himself in the full amount. This amount is fixed according to age and sex (Lev. xxvii. ; see Estimate).

When the person killed is a (Canaanite) bondman or bondwoman, the text fixes the mulct, payable to the owner, at thirty shekels, without regard to the %'alue of the slave (Ex. xxi. 33; B. K. iv. 5).

While the text speaks only of the ox that kills either man or beast, the animal may strike and wound without killing its victim, and thus inflict a lesser injury. In such cases the owner of a mu'ad pays full damage ; the owner of a tam half damage, as will be shown hereafter.

When a human being is hurt the owner of the ox