423
the government of Suwalki, Russia, May 9, 1824; died in Bielostok Dec. 29, 1896. He received his earliest instruction from his grandfather, Judah Backraeh. For years he was superintendent of a Hebrew printing-establishment in Konigsberg, where he edited, among other works, the " Turim " of Jacob ben Asher, and added valuable notes to the same. Later on he became manager of a distillery at Sebastopol, where he had the opportunity to develop into an assiduous student of Karaitic literature, and where he engaged in controversies with the representatives of the local Karaitic community. His works are chiefly devoted to a defense of rabbinical tradition against Karaism. In 1882 he went to Palestine in the interest of colonization. Of his printed works "Ha-yakas Liketab Ashuri" (History of the Assyrian Script), Warsaw, 1854, is a polemical treatise against Elias Levita's theory that vowelpoints and accents originated in post-Talmudic times. To the same purpose is devoted his " Isktadalut 'im Shadal " (An Engagement with ShaDaL) (Samuel David Luzzatto), 2 vols., Warsaw, 1896 in which he again attempts to refute Luzzatto's view, based on that of Levita, that the vowelpoints are the invention of the Masorites. His " Maiimare Jacob ha-Bakri " (Essays of Jacob Backrach), Warsaw, 1893, 2 vols., is a work devoted to proving that the Jewish calendar is of ancient origin, and he opposes the arguments of the Karaites, of Slonimsky, and of others, who asserted that the ancient Israelites reckoned by the solar year. A very interesting and well-written booklet is his description of his journey to Palestine, "Ha-Massa' la-Arez
ha-Kedoshah," 2d Bibliography
ed., Kief, 1884.
Achiasaf
Almanac
i
and
private
sources.
D.
h. G.
BACHRACH, JUDAH B. JOSHUA HESKIEL Rabbi and Talmudist born in Lithuania
about 1775 died at Seiny, government of Suwalki, April 25, 1846. He was a lineal descendant in the seventh generation of Tobias Backraeh, who, together with Israel ben Skalom, was bekeaded on a charge of ritual murder in Rushony Sept. 19, 1659. Backrack's life was a model of piety. He distributed among tke poor all the income derived from his position of rabbi at Seiny, and lived on the interest from a small fund that his friends had invested for kim in tkeir business. His notes on tke Talmud, under the title " Nimmuke Hagrib y-iT = ha-Gaon R. Jehudah Bachrach " (Critical Comments of Hagrib, the Gaon R. Jehudah Bachrach), appear in the
edition of the
Rom
Talmud which was published by
at Wilna.
Bibliography: Walden, Shem ha-OednUm hc-Hadmh, p. 53, Warsaw, 1879 Eisenstadt- Wiener, Da'at Kedoshim, pp. 38
et
Bacher, Wilhelm Bacon, Roger
THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
set/., St.
Petersburg, 1897-98.
D.
L. G.
BACHRICH, SIGISMUND
Hungarian
vio-
and operatic composer; born at Zsambokret, Hungary, Jan. 23, 1841. He began the study of the violin with BOkm at the Vienna Conservatory in 1851, from which institution he was graduated in linist
1857.
He
then accepted a conductorship at a Vien-
na theater, and four years later went to Paris. Here he was compelled to fight his way, first as
leader of a small orchestra, then as journalist, and finally as apothecary. Upon his return to Vienna he played the viola in the Helmesberger Quartet,
with which organization he remained associated for twelve years. He then became a teacher at the Conservatory and still occupies this position. Bachrich is also a member of the Rose Quartet and of the philharmonic and opera orchestras. His principal compositions are: "Muzzedin,"a comic opera, Vienna, 1883; "Heini von Steier," ib. 1884; "Der Fucksmajor," an operetta, Prague, 1889; "Sakuntala," a ballet; and two otker operettas. Of these works, the operetta, "Der Fuchsmajor, " has probably been the most successful. Riemann, Musik Lextiton, 1900: Baker, Bibliography Bing. Diet, of Musicians, 1900; Kohut, BerUhmte Israeli:
tisehe
MUnner unci Frauen,
1900.
J.
s.
BACKOFEN, JACOB. See Reischer. BACON, ROGER: English philosopher
So.
and
scholar of the thirteenth century born at Ilchester, England, about 1214 died about 1294. He studied at Oxford and spent some years in Paris, where he obtained tke degree of doctor of tkeology. In 1250 lie was again at Oxford, and about tkis time became
a Franciscan friar. He devoted kimself to a mastery of all kuman knowledge theological, philo-
—
and physical. His fame spread very rapidly, and ke acquired tke title of " doctor mirabilis " among tkose of his contemporaries wko recognized kis wide and profound erudition while his physical and chemical apparatus and experiments secured for kim tke reputation of dealing in magic and the black arts, and aroused suspisophical,
philological,
cions as to his orthodoxy. Bonaventura, general of the order, about 1257, interdicted his lectures at Oxford, and commanded him to place himself under the supervision of the body in Paris and there he remained for ten years under strict surveillance. In the year 1265 Cardinal Guy de Foulques became pope under the name of Clement IV. Shortly be;
he had been sent by Pope Urban IV. to England to intervene in the disputes between Henry III. and his barons, and had then made the acquaintance The new pope, in 1266, directed Bacon of Bacon. to send him in manuscript the results of kis researckes, despite tke interdictions of Bacon's supeThis papal authorization gave an impetus to riors. Bacon's pen; and in about eighteen months he completed the three great treatises, "Opus Majus," " Opus Minus, " and " Opus Tertium. " The result of tke receipt of tkese works by the pope was that in 1268 Bacon was permitted to return to Oxford, where ke continued his studies and the composition In 1278, however, tke general of learned treatises. of tke order condemned Bacon's writings; and ke was thrown into prison, there to remain for fourteen fore,
years.
One of the most remarkable of Bacon's many great achievements in the sphere of learning is his demonstration of tke need for prosecuting tke study of tke Hebrew language a study which was as unknown in England as on the Continent till the fifteenth century, when Reuchlin aroused the mind of Europe on the subject. Hirsch, in his "Early English Hebraists," kas shown how Bacon anticipated by 200 years
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