BASS, SHABBETHAI B. JOSEPH – Founder of Jewish bibliography; born at Kalisz 1641; died July 21, 1718, at Krotoschin. After the death of his parents, who were victims of the persecutions at Kalisz in 1655, Bass went to Prague. His teacher there in the Talmud...
BASSAI – See Bezai.
BASSANI, HEZEKIAH MORDECAI B. SAMUEL – Rabbi of Verona, Italy; lived at the end of the sixteenth century and at the beginning of the seventeenth. He was the author of "Miktab le-Ḥizḳiyahu" (Letter of Hezekiah), on divorce, and "Ma'amar Mordekai" (Mordecai's Words),...
BASSANI, HUGO – Italian poet and composer; born in Padua June 5, 1851. He studied in Milan and was one of the favorite scholars of Anthony Bazzini, director of the Milan Conservatory. Bassani's romances—compositions for piano or orchestra—are...
BASSANI, ISAIAH – Italian rabbi, of the first half of the eighteenth century; the son of Israel Hezekiah Bassani, who was a pupil of Moses Zacuto and of Judah Briel of Mantua. From 1702 to 1707 he was rabbi at Cento, as appears from the documents...
BASSANI, ISRAEL BENJAMIN – Rabbi at Reggio, Italy; born in 1703; died at Reggio Jan. 20, 1790 (5 Shebaṭ, 5550); son of Isaiah Bassani. He was a skilful poet, both in Hebrew and in Italian. In honor of Francisco III. of Este, duke of Modena, Bassani...
BASSANI, JEHIEL B. ḤAYYIM – Casuist and rabbi of Constantinople in the seventeenth century. His responsa (Constantinople, 1737) are valued for their keen analysis and terse style. Bassani maintained a learned correspondence with the great Oriental teachers...
BASSANO – City in the province of Venice, Italy. Here, as in all the surrounding places, Jews were living at a very early period, engaged in commerce and industry, and especially in money-lending, as is shown by contemporary documents...
BASSEVI, HENDEL – Daughter of Ebert Geronim, and second wife of Jacob Bassevi, son of Abraham Bassevi and president of the congregation of Prague. She died in the summer of 1628. Her tomb is embellished with the family coat of arms—a blue lion...
BASSEVI VON TREUENBERG, JACOB – Court Jew and financier; born in 1580; died at Jung-BuntzlauMay 2, 1634. He entered business early in life, ultimately became very wealthy, and stood in high favor with the emperors Rudolph II., Matthias, and Ferdinand II., to...
BASSIN, ELIEZER – Missionary at Jassy, Rumania; born about 1840 in the government of Mohilev, Russia. In 1869 he went to Constantinople, where he made the acquaintance of English missionaries who persuaded him to embrace Christianity. He was the...
BASSORA – City in a vilayet of the same name in Asiatic Turkey, about 54 miles from the Persian gulf and 1¼ miles west of the Shaṭṭ al-'Arab; founded by the Arabs in 636. Nothing is known of the early history of the Jews in this city, but...
BASSUS, LUCILIUS – Governor of Judea after the conquest of Jerusalem by Titus (70). He had formerly been prefect of the fleet at Ravenna, and took the oath of allegiance to Vitellius; but, dissatisfied with not having been promoted to the dignity...
BASTARD – In the English use of the word, a child neither born nor begotten in lawful wedlock; an illegitimate child. There is no Hebrew word of like meaning. The mamzer, rendered "bastard" in the A. V., is something worse than an...
BASURTO, DIEGO ENRIQUEZ – Marano poet of the seventeenth century; born in Spain. Like his father—the poet Antonio Enriquez Gomez—he resided several years at Rouen, and finally settled in Holland. The following curious description of him is given by the...
BAT – This well-known winged mammal (in Hebrew , Lev. xi. 19; Deut. xiv. 18; Isa. ii. 20) was considered by the Hebrews as belonging to the class of birds. The ancients in general considered it as a creature belonging both to the...
BAT ḲOL – A heavenly or divine voice which proclaims God's will or judgment, His deeds and His commandments to individuals or to a number of persons, to rulers, communities, and even to whole nations. The meaning of the word is "sound,"...
BAT-SHEBA – A family of printers, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, whose name originates from the feminine name "Bath-sheba." The printer Mattathia Bat-Sheba, who died at Salonica toward the close of 1600, is the first known...
BAṬALYUSI, AL-HAFIZ ABU MOHAMMED ABD ALLAH IBN MOHAMMED IBN AL-SID AL – Credited with Philosophical Treatise. Arabian philologist; born at Badajos (whence his name Al-Baṭalyusi = native of Badajos) in the second half of the eleventh century; died at Valencia in 1127 (compare Hartwig Derenbourg in...
BATANAEA – See Bashan.
BATE, JULIUS – English Biblical and Hebraic scholar; born about 1711; died at Arundel Jan. 20, 1771. He was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he received his master's degree in 1740. He took unusual interest in Old Testament...
BATH – City, borough, and capital of the county of Somersetshire, England. Though as old as Roman times—in which it was known as "Aquaeæ, Solis," from its hot springs—Jews do not appear to have resided there until quite recently. It is...
BATH – See Weights and Measures.
BATH-RABBIM – A term found only once in the Bible (Cant. vii. 4), apparently as the name of a gate at or near Heshbon. The passage is obscure; but of the various emendations that have been proposed—by Grätz," Schir ha-Schirim" ("Rabbath...
BATH-SHEBA – Biblical Data: The daughter of Eliam (II Sam. xi. 3; but of Ammiel according to I Chron. iii. 5), who became the wife of Uriah the Hittite, and afterward of David, by whom she became the mother of Solomon. Her father is...