Baruch

views updated Jun 08 2018

BARUCH

BARUCH , prominent U.S. family.

simon (1840–1921) emigrated from his native Posen, Prussia, to America in 1855. He settled in South Carolina, where his first employers, impressed with his talents, assisted him in his studies at the medical colleges of South Carolina and Virginia. Baruch received his degree in 1862 and became a surgeon in Lee's Confederate Army, serving at the front for three years. Captured and interned at Fort McHenry, he wrote a book on military surgery, Two Penetrating Wounds of the Chest, which remained a standard work through World War i. In 1864 he was sent to Thomasville, North Carolina, to prepare hospital facilities for Confederate troops pursuing Sherman. After the war he lived in South Carolina, where he was elected president of the State Medical Association (1874) and chairman of the State Health Board (1880). In 1881 he moved to New York to escape the turbulence of Reconstruction, occupying the chair of hydrotherapy at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons. Credited with being the first doctor to successfully diagnose and remove a ruptured appendix, he also contributed to the treatment of malaria, childhood diseases, and typhoid fever. He edited the Journal of Balneology, the Dietetic and Hygienic Gazette, and Gailland's Medical Journal.

Simon's wife, the former isobel wolfe of Winnsboro, South Carolina, was a descendant of Isaac Rodriguez Marques, an early colonial settler. The couple had four sons, Hartwig, Bernard Mannes, Herman Benjamin, and Sailing Wolfe (1874–1962). hartwig (1868–1953), the eldest, became a Broadway actor. herman (1872–1953) received a medical degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1895. He practiced medicine until 1903, when he joined his brother Bernard's Wall Street firm and became a member of the New York Stock Exchange. In 1918 Herman became a lifetime partner in H. Hentz and Company. He entered public service in 1943 when he participated in a Brazil conference sponsored by the board of Economic Warfare. After World War ii Herman served as U.S. ambassador to Portugal (1945–47) and as ambassador to the Netherlands (1947–49).

bernard baruch (1870–1965), stock analyst, self-styled "speculator," and statesman, was born in Camden, South Carolina. He received a B.A. from the City College of New York, and in 1889 he joined the Wall Street firm of Arthur A. Housman. Bernard became a partner in 1896, and a member of the New York Stock Exchange. By 1902, by means of his financial wizardry and careful market research into raw materials such as gold, copper, sulfur, and rubber, he had amassed a fortune of over three million dollars.

Bernard first entered public life in 1916. Then, as a result of his keen knowledge of the raw materials market, President Wilson appointed him to the advisory commission of the Council of National Defense and made him chairman of the Commission on Raw Materials, Minerals, and Metals. During World War i he served as chairman of the War Industries Board with power to virtually mobilize the American wartime economy. At the war's end he served on the Supreme Economic Council at the Conference of Versailles, where he was President Wilson's personal economic adviser, and from that time on his advisory services were sought by every president of the United States. During World War ii President Franklin Roosevelt named him chairman of a committee to report on the rubber shortage and to plan a solution. In 1943 he became adviser to War Mobilization Director James Byrnes, and in 1946 he was named the U.S. representative to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission. In 1939 Bernard advocated a "United States of Africa" in Uganda, as a refuge for Jews and all victims of persecution. The founding of Israel he saw as only a part-way solution. No Zionist, he opposed the establishment of any state on the basis of religion, and looked upon himself always as first an American and then a Jew. Bernard was the formal author of the first official U.S. policy on the control of atomic energy, which he proposed before the United Nations on June 14, 1946. His plan called for the creation of an International Atomic Development Authority, empowered to universally control all dangerous uses of atomic energy and to inspect all atomic installations. It did not prohibit atomic weapons outright, which the Russians demanded, although they rejected inspection. It was vetoed by the U.S.S.R. in 1948 and it was never adopted. Bernard wrote American Industry in the War (1941), My Own Story (1957), and a sequel, Public Years (1960).

bibliography:

simon: dab; J.R. Marcus (ed.), Memoirs of American Jews, 17751865, 3 (1956), 269–81; H. Simonhoff, Saga of American Jewry, 18651914 (1959), 125–9; bernard: C. Field, Bernard Baruch (1944); M.L. Coit, Mr. Baruch (1957), incl. bibl. add. bibliography: J.A. Schwarz, The Speculator: Bernard M. Baruch in Washington, 19171965 (1981); J.L. Grant, Bernard M. Baruch: The Adventures of a Wall Street Legend (1983).

[Margaret L. Coit]

Baruch

views updated May 23 2018

BARUCH

BARUCH , name of several kabbalists.

BARUCH SHELI'AḤ ẒIBBUR TOGARMI. Baruch Sheli'aḥ ẓibbur Togarmi, as is suggested by his cognomen Togarmi, was a cantor of eastern origin. He wrote a treatise, extant in several manuscripts (Paris, Oxford, New York), called Mafteḥot ha-Kabbalah ("The Keys to Kabbalah"), which contains a short, factually complete commentary on the Sefer *Yeẓirah, identical with the one described by Abraham *Abulafia in his Oẓar Eden Ganuz as being by his master, Baruch (no surname). In the early 14th century, *Isaac b. Samuel of Acre quotes a Baruch Togarmi in Me'irat Einayim in such a way as to suggest a scholar who lived at least one generation earlier. He says, "I saw written in the name of Baruch Togarmi" and ends with the eulogy for the dead. The three quotations display the same characteristic of short allusions to kabbalistic secrets through wordplay as the above-mentioned treatise, Mafteḥot. This is significant for the early history of the Abulafian current in the Kabbalah. The author already knows a distinct group of such kabbalists who are occupied with the (mystical) knowledge of the name of God. From his statements, it is to be understood that he belonged to a circle whose members believed themselves able to discover "by the three ways of the Kabbalah," i.e., gematria ("numerical value of words"), notarikon ("interpretation of each letter in a word as abbreviation of other words"), and temurah ("interchange of letters according to certain systematic rules") particularly profound mysteries of the mystic cosmology and theology. However, according to his testimony, he was not allowed either to divulge in public or even merely to set down in writing most of it. The treatise is full of obscure wordplay and peculiar gematriot. For example, the word "body" here means the evil principle, through the equation גוף רע (guf ra, "evil body" – 359) equals שטן (satan – 359). The work originates clearly from the same circle as the book Sod ha-Levanah (ed. by J. Klausner, in Madda'ei ha-Yahadut, 2 (1927), 240–1), which has survived in the name of Jacob Cohen (c. 1260–70, that is at the time of R. Baruch). According to this, Baruch would have lived in Spain. Thus, it is a plausible assumption that it was through him that Abulafia, during his stay in Barcelona in 1270–73, was introduced to the Kabbalah of this circle.

baruch the kabbalist

Baruch the Kabbalist was author of the book Mafte'aḥ ha-Kabbalah ("Key to Kabbalah") which was in Carmoly's possession (Cod. 249 of the Kirchheim Catalogue of Carmoly's Mss. of 1876). This book has no connection with the work of the above-mentioned Baruch Sheli'aḥ-Ẓibbur Togarmi. It belongs to an entirely different literary environment and it dates from the 14th century. This author already quotes the *Zohar and the tikkunim, and is familiar with the homily on Jeremiah 9:22 from the end of the 13th century and possibly later (preserved in the Berlin Hebr. Ms. 193, fol. 79–98 and dated by Steinschneider not before 1350; cf. also hb, 18 (1877), 20). He also copied several passages from Shem Tov *Ibn Gaon's work Baddei ha-Aron, which was completed in 1325. That is the origin of all the passages which are common to Baruch the Kabbalist's work, and that of Shem Tov's Sefer ha-Emunot. Since Baruch undoubtedly knew Shem Tov ibn Gaon's works, there is nothing to uphold Carmoly's assumption that Baruch's book was the one used in the Emunot. Mafte'aḥ ha-Kabbalah was not a comprehensive work (Carmoly's manuscript, which is incomplete, contains only 28 folios) and did not add anything novel to the doctrines of Kabbalah, only excerpts from other sources in defense of the Kabbalistic tradition. Moses Botarel relied apparently on this book when he quoted in length from a spurious work Ḥoshen ha-Mishpat in his Yeẓirah commentary (to ch. 4, mishnah 4). It is possible, however, that Botarel had in mind Baruch Togarmi as the author of a Yeẓirah commentary. Botarel also named Baruch among the authorities who dealt with the technique of She'elat Ḥalom ("Dream Queries") and, as a matter of fact, Baruch's exposition is still extant in manuscripts (Gaster 603, fol. 9 and in other manuscripts). Apart from this, an older kabbalist named Baruch, who could not have lived after 1400 since he is already mentioned in manuscripts from that period, is mentioned occasionally in manuscripts dealing with practical Kabbalah. In the old Paris manuscript no. 602, he is described as the "father-in-law of the kabbalist Menahem," who is himself unknown. In the Gaster manuscript no. 720, the theurgic use of the socalled shem ha-kanaf, i.e., of the mystic "name" Ẓemarkad, was transmitted "from the tradition of Baruch." In a work of similar character such as his Yeẓirah commentary (which is partly preserved in a Jerusalem manuscript), Botarel attributes a commentary on the Ḥagigah talmudic tract, particularly its second chapter, to a kabbalist called Baruch of Narbonne. It is to be assumed that he means by this the same person, who therefore belongs to the second half of the 14th century. S. Sachs, who mistakes this Baruch for the one mentioned above, ascribes Ma'amar ha-Sekhel (Cremona, 1557), which gives the 613 commandments a kabbalistic explanation, to him.

baruch ashkenazi

Baruch Ashkenazi who is called by Shem Tov *Attia, in the introduction to his commentary on the Psalms, an "old kabbalist," is, as clearly shown by his surname, a third person. There are no further details about him.

bibliography:

Scholem, Mysticism, 127.

[Gershom Scholem]

Baruch

views updated Jun 11 2018

BARUCH

BARUCH (Heb. בָּרוּךְ; "blessed"), son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, scribe and trusted companion of the prophet *Jeremiah, who set down in writing all the latter's prophecies and may have composed the biographical narrative about Jeremiah (Jer. 36:4). Baruch's brother Seraiah was the quartermaster of Zedekiah (51:59), the last king of Judah. In the fourth year (or possibly the fifth) of the reign of *Jehoiakim, Baruch wrote down, at Jeremiah's dictation, all of the prophet's oracles and read them in the temple court before the entire community, which had assembled for a fast day proclaimed in Kislev of that year. Baruch then read them before the king's ministers (36:4ff.). When the king was informed of these events, he ordered the scroll to be read before him. When he heard the prophet's message forecasting doom, Jehoiakim tore the scroll, cast it into the fire, and ordered Jeremiah and Baruch to be placed under arrest; they, however, succeeded in hiding from him. Then Jeremiah redictated the contents of the destroyed scroll and added to it (36:32). As a reward for Baruch's loyalty, Jeremiah declared that he would be saved (45:1ff.).

In the tenth year of Zedekiah's reign, when Jerusalem was under siege by the Babylonians, Jeremiah bought a field from Hanamel, his uncle's son. He entrusted the deeds of purchase to Baruch, asking him to place them in an earthenware vessel for safekeeping "that they may last for a long time" (32:1–16). The Babylonian commanders released Baruch together with Jeremiah and did not force him to go into exile to Babylon (40:1–7). Baruch apparently exerted a great influence over Jeremiah. When *Gedaliah son of Ahikam was killed and the remnant of the population that had escaped exile, fearing the vengeance of Nebuchadnezzar, asked Jeremiah whether they should stay in the country or go down to Egypt, he advised them to remain. But they suspected him of acting under Baruch's instigation, thinking that Baruch, out of hatred for them, planned to place them at the mercy of the Babylonian king. Baruch was then taken along with Jeremiah and the remnant of the population to Egypt.

In the Aggadah

Baruch is held to be a priest as well as a prophet and one of the descendants of Rahab (Meg. 14b; SOR, 20). He is identified with Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian, who saved Jeremiah from the dungeon (Sif. Num., on 12:1). Five years after the destruction of the Temple, Baruch (with Jeremiah) was taken from Egypt to Babylon, where he died (Meg. 16b; sor 26:1; cf. Jos. Ant., 10:181–2). He is also said to have prophesied there in the second year of the reign of Darius, but was unable to return to Judah because of his advanced age. According to this tradition, Ezra was his pupil (Song. R. 5:5; Meg. 16b).

In the Middle Ages the Iraqi Jews possessed several legends about Baruch's grave, which was said to be near that of Ezekiel in Mushid Aʾli. A certain Arab ruler in Baghdad – at the time of the exilarch Solomon – wished to see the graves of Ezekiel and Baruch. When the grave was opened, Baruch's body was found in a marble coffin, looking as if alive. It was decided to transport him some distance from Ezekiel's grave, but, after a mile-long journey, the cart stopped and would not move, and he was buried at that spot (Travels of R. Petachia of Ratisbonne…, ed. and tr. by A. Benisch (1856), 21, 23, 49, 51). Jewish tradition extolled Baruch's piety and several apocalypses were attributed to him as well as an apocryphal letter.

Baruch came to have considerable importance in the apocryphal literature where a number of books were attributed to him. Moreover, there are apparently fragments of Baruch and Jeremiatic apocryphal literature among the Dead Sea Scrolls. According to the apocryphal books he received many visions and revelations of an apocalyptic nature. In ii Baruch his assumption is foretold (ii Bar. 25.1, 76:1).

bibliography:

S. Yeivin, in: Tarbiz, 12 (1940/41), 260; de Vaux, Anc. Isr, 49, 120, 168; Noth, Personennamen, 183; em, 2 (1965), 337–8 (includes bibliography); Ginzberg, Legends, index.

[Yehoshua M. Grintz]

Baruch

views updated Jun 27 2018

BARUCH

Son of Nerias, friend and secretary of the Prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah dictated several of his oracles to Baruch (Heb. bārûk, blessed, probably a shortened form of b erûkyâ, blessed of Yahweh), who wrote them on a scroll and then read them before the people in the Temple and later before the authorities; when King Jehoiakim had heard the oracles, he burned the scroll, and Baruch wrote them down a second time at Jeremiah's dictation (Jer 36.432). Because of Baruch's loyalty, special blessings were promised to him by Jeremiah (Jer 45.15). After the fall of Jerusalem, the Jewish refugees took Jeremiah and Baruch along with them to Egypt (Jer 43.6). According to a tradition recounted by St. Jerome, Baruch died there. He is important not only because he served Jeremiah, but also because he is responsible for the biographical portions of that Prophet's book. Later generations credited him with the deuterocanonical Book of baruch and with two apocryphal books, the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch and the Greek Apocalypse of Baruch.

Bibliography: Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Bible, tr. and adap. l. hartman (New York 1963) 210211. v. hamp, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiberg 195765) 2: 1819. g. von rad, Theologie des Alten Testaments, 2 v. (Göttingen 195760) 2:218220, Eng. tr. d. stalker (New York 1962). c. schedl, Geschichte des Alten Testament (Innsbruck 1956) 4:395402.

[l. a. iranyi]

Baruch

views updated May 23 2018

Baruch. Scribe and companion of the prophet Jeremiah. In apocryphal literature, several books are attributed to him, and further fragments of such books have been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Book of Baruch (1 Baruch) is one of the additions to the book of Jeremiah in the Septuagint.

2 Baruch (Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch) describes the Babylonian capture of Jerusalem, written to encourage Jews after the destruction of the second Temple.

3 Baruch (Greek Apocalypse of Baruch) describes Baruch's vision of the seven heavens.

The Rest of the Words of Baruch (4 Baruch or Paralipomena Jeremiae) is a legendary account of Jeremiah's return from exile and his death.

Baruch

views updated May 14 2018

Baruch the scribe of the prophet Jeremiah; he was sent by his master to read Jeremiah's prophecies in the Temple, against the king's wishes. Baruch is also the name of a book of the Apocrypha, attributed in the text to his authorship.