Ephraim Urbach Explained
Ephraim Urbach |
Native Name: | אפרים אלימלך אורבך |
Native Name Lang: | he |
Birth Place: | Włocławek, Poland |
Death Place: | Jerusalem, Israel |
Nationality: | Poland Israel |
Occupation: | - Scholar of Judaism
- Professor of Talmud
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Awards: |
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Known For: | - The Sages
- Research on the Tosafot
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Module: | |
Ephraim Urbach (Hebrew: אפרים אלימלך אורבך) (born 1912 – 3 July 1991) was a distinguished scholar of Judaism. He is best known for his landmark works on rabbinic thought, The Sages, and for research on the Tosafot. He was a candidate to presidency in Israel in 1973, but wasn't elected.[1]
A professor of Talmud at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Urbach was a member and president of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.[2]
Biography
Ephraim Elimelech Urbach was born in Włocławek, Poland,[3] to a hasidic family. He studied in Rome and Breslau, where he received rabbinic ordination in 1934.[3] He immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1938.[2] During World War II he served for four years as a chaplain in the British army.[3] [2] Subsequently he served as director of Ma'aleh secondary school in Jerusalem,[3] before joining the Hebrew University faculty in 1953.[4]
Urbach died on 3 July 1991 at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem after a long illness.[2] He is buried at the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, near Menachem Begin.
Published works
- The Sages
- דרשות חז"ל על נביאי אומות העולם ועל פרשת בלעם "Rabbinic Exegesis About Gentile Prophets And The Balaam Passage" (Hebrew), Tarbitz (25:1956), Urbach explored the interpretation of the rabbis about Gittin 57a where Onkelos raises up Balaam from hell, and concluded that Balaam was not a reference to Jesus in the Talmud.[5]
Awards and recognition
See also
Notes and References
- Web site: Kneset - Previous Presidential Elections . 2014-07-04 . bot: unknown . https://web.archive.org/web/20060105040849/https://www.knesset.gov.il/president/eprevious.htm . January 5, 2006 .
- News: Ephraim E. Urbach; Hebrew Scholar, 79 . The New York Times . 3 July 1991.
- "Urbach, Ephraim (1912-91)." Encyclopedia of Modern Jewish Culture. ed. Glenda Abramson. Routledge, 2004. p. 924.
- Web site: העלאות ומינויים באוניברסיטה העורית . Promotions and appointments at the Hebrew University . . 6 August 1956. Promoted from lecturer to associate professor in 1956.
- Matthew Kraus How should rabbinic literature be read in the modern world? p182 "See his article דרשות חז"ל על נביאי אומות העולם ועל פרשת בלעם p281-287, where he refutes a long chain of scholarly opinions (the last being, Lauterbach, supra, ibid., pp. 545ff.) drawing a parallel between Balaam and Jesus. However Urbach tended to accept the anti-Christian sentiments in various rabbinic interpretations of the Balaam episode"
- Web site: Israel Prize recipients in 1955 (in Hebrew) . cms.education.gov.il (Israel Prize official website) . https://web.archive.org/web/20120612102601/http://cms.education.gov.il/EducationCMS/Units/PrasIsrael/Tashyag/Tashkab_Tashyag_Rikuz.htm?DictionaryKey=Tashtav . June 12, 2012 . dead .
- Web site: [List of Bialik Prize recipients 1933–2004]]. Tel Aviv Municipality . Hebrew . https://web.archive.org/web/20071217143811/http://www.tel-aviv.gov.il/Hebrew/_MultimediaServer/Documents/12516738.pdf. December 17, 2007.