AGA, BENJAMIN
Lender of
of the rnyal (iliyny Khan, the hist Tatar ruler
Criiiica, wlici iHimI
ixi4.
in
tin- Kiiniiti-s
He was
Ireasiirerof Scliiii of the Crimea, am! llierefnre is calU'<l in Karaile literature Ha-NeenianC the Trusted ") an appellatidii bestowed also upon his father Samuel, who died in 1770, and who prohahly helil the .same oltiee under former khans. When (Jliyrey Khan tied for his life from liis rebellious subjeels,and soui^bl succor from his protectress Calberine II. in St. I'etcrsburj;, Ai^il followed him. hopinjj to collect the larjjc sums of money that he had advanced to the fuj^ilive. In 17!!.'"). after the Crimea had been luider IJussian ride for
—
over a decade. Benjaun'n A.ira. Solomon ben Xahamu Bobowitz, and the astronomer Lsaac of Kalea, the son-in-law of Jacob Afra, w ho was the elder brother
Benjamin A^'a. went to St. Petersburi; as a delegation from the Crimean Karaites, to i)etition the empress to release their sect from the double rate of ta.xation which all the Jews then had to pay. Through the intervi'ntion of the notorious Count Zouliov (who was one <if the a.ssa.ssins of Emperor I'aul in 1801), the delegation obtained from the empress the exemption i'mm the obno.ious "Jewish" taxes, some land grants, and other privileges which bad not been asked tor. This established an impnrlani pirecedenl forexiniptinirtbi' Karailesfrom sub.se(|uent antijewish legislation. The extraordinary successor the mission served toarouse great enthusiasm among the Karaites, and Agaand his fellow delegates were received with great honor on their return. A large monolith, fashioned out of marble, with fitting inscription, was erected in the cotirl of the synagogue at (Ju/.lowo (Euiiatoriaor Koslov), to commemorate an event .so importani in the history of the Karaites of Kussia. of
ItiBLiooRAPHY
IsajicMit
Or ha-Lclianah,
Kalea,
JItomIr, 1882.
P.
AOABTTS
A Jew
w.
of Jerusalem one of the ])rophcls who, after the ilispi-rsion of Ihe early followersof Jisus. came to the city of Anlioeh(Acis, xi. 19-'2K, xxi. 10). He represents some of the spiritual " By forces that lielped to shape th(? new faith. the l)ower of the Spirit he iiredicled Ihe great fam:
which (Jueen Helena of Adiabene proved a great
Jews (see Josephus. " AnI." XX. S ."i^and in which liarnabasand I'aul were sent from Aniioeh wit hconlril>ul ions for the relief of the Christians in Jcrusjileni. On another (Kcasion A.irabus liad come from Judeii to Ca'sarea into the house of Philip, the preacher of the new tidings, whose four virgin (laughters were prophetesses. Then? w took the girdleof Paul. and. having bound hisown hands anil feet therewilb. sjud "Thus sailli the Ihily Ohost, So shall Ihi' Jews at Jerusalem bind Ihe man Ihatowni'lh Ihls girdli'. and shall deliver bini inio the hands of llie C.enlili-s" (.els. xxi. H-1 1 Paul insisted upon going, in spile of all entrealiis. and met Willi thi' fate predicted. Prophesying which liy lienefaelress of the
2,
).
—
Judaism
been regarded as suspended (see I .Mace. iv. 4ft, .xiv. 41; E/nv, ii. O:!; Neh. vii. ft"); Ps. Ixxiv. i))— was a conspicuous ]ilieiionienon among the early Chrislians (see Malt. xxi. '2(1: 1 Cor. xii. 10, 'JS; I>idaclie," X. xi. etc. bin was not unknown to those circles of the Jewish pi'ople who Pliarisjiie
(I Sam. xv. ). His life was spared by .Saul but the |iro])liet .Samuel, who regarded this clemency asadelianeeof the will of YHWH, put him to death at (iilgal as a Siieritice similar to that sometimes performed by Ihe early Arabs after a successful combat (W. Bobertson Smith, "Beligion of the Semites," 2d
against him
ed., p. 491). In Num. xxiv. 7 Balaam refers to Agag in that gives probability to Ihe coujecl lire that
away
the
name was a standing
title
of the kings of J.
In Rabbinical Literature
P.
Amalek.
McC.
The rabbis taught
that the .lews took vengeance on Agag for Ihe cruelties they had undergone at Ihe hands of the Amalekiles, who, to mock at the Jews, IheirGod, and the rite of circumcision, mutilated every Jew that fell into their jiower (see A.M.M.ICK); Samuel, hey say, Irealed Agag in the same way. According to some authorities, Ihe death of Agag, described in Ihe Bible by the I
unusual word ira-yfH/iiinnif ("hewed in iiieces," I Sam. XV. ii'-i), was brought about in a much more cruel way than the word denotes. Others think that the only unusual (hingin the execution of Agag consisted in the fact that it was not carried out strictly in accordance with Ihe ])rovisions of Ihe Jewish law, reel ui ring witnesses to prove Ihe crime; nor had he been specilically "warned" as the law re(piired. Bui, Agag being a heal hen, Samuel convicted him according to the hcallun law, which demanded only evidence of Ihe crime for condemnation (Pesik. iii. Pesik. I{. xii. xiii. and Ihe parallel passages quoted by Buberin Pesik.). The execution of Agag, however, occurred in one respect loo late, for had hv been killed one day sooner that is.immedialely upon his caplure by Saul the great jieril which the Jews had to undergo at the bands of Hainan would haw, been averted, for Agag thereby became a progenitor of Ilaman (Meg. 13a, Targ. Shenito Esth. iv. 13). 2.54,
—
—
L. G.
ine which afterward visited Judea under Claudius" Ix'lweiri the years -14 and 4H. This was the famine in
Africa A^ai, Adolf
THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
229
u:
liad
'•
l.
beliived in the working of the Holy Spirit (s<'e Book of Wisdom, vii. 27, and Josephus, "Ant." .iii. 12, § 1 xiv. Itt, S 2; .xvii. 11!, si 3, 4; " B. J." i. 3, !; .'i).
K.
AGAO.— Biblical Data:
Kiiigof the Amalekiles, taken by King Saul after a siifcessfill expedition
AOAI, ADOLF
Pliysician and journalist bom March :il, lM:i<>, at .lankovacz, Hungary. His father, Joseph Kosenzweig. al the age of Ihirleen, emi:
grated from (Jalicia to Hungary, where he studied medicine, became a iihysici.an, and wrote a liook on asphyxia, w Inch w.-is iillimalely published with the linaiicial aid of the Hungarian secrelary of state, Ciabor Klaiizal, He translated Ilungariau classics into Hebrew. Ilis son Adolf, who later adopted a Hungarian name and called himself Agai (.g=
German y.iriiij) was eduiatcd at Biida|)est and Vienna, and afterward traveled extensively in Euro])!', Asia, and Africa. His first literary jiroduclion a novel enlilled " AnIoiiKlle " was published in the columns of the " IliilgyfuU'ir " in l.s.")4. Por this journal and for Ihe " Yasariiapi Uj.siig" he wrote letters from Vienna (lH,14-8!), and occasionally contribiiled (o the "Wanderer," "(!arleiilaube," anil " Flicgcnde Bliltler." In lS(i."), under the iiseudonym "Porzo. "he wrote a .series of spirited feiiil-
—
—
letons,
From
remarkable for
llieir
pathos ami
liiimor.
1S70 to 1S7!) he edited the " Nagy vilag," and in 1M71 founded a comic weekly, " Borsszem .lanko," of which hi' was editor in 1900. The hiinioniiis chaniclers lie created are well known in Ilun.iiary, especially "Seifcnsleiner Salamon," a l.vpe of wiliy Jew. Ill 1S7I Airiii imderlook ll ditorsliip of Iho "Kis Lap," which he had foundeil for the youth of his coiinlry. In that journal he writes under the pseudonym "Forgo Bacsi." His annual caleiulars, published under the names of Ihe various humorous chaniclers ill his" Horsszeiii Jaiiko." arc wiil(4y read. Agai isa succissfiil li ctunr. and haslninslaled (ierinan and French books into Hungarian. He is a
