Issachar Dov-Ber Bampi (; 1823 – March 10, 1888) was a

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

Jewish scholar, bibliophile, and philanthropist.

Biography

Issachar Dov-Ber Bampi was born in

Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...

in 1823. He received a comprehensive

Biblical The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) biblical languages ...

and

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

ic education, and was proficient in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

. For the last thirty years of his life, Bampi delivered daily lectures on various chapters of the Bible in his private synagogue. His scholarly focus centered on tracing Jewish religious customs to their origins in both Talmuds and

Midrash ''Midrash'' (;"midrash"
. ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; or ''midrashot' ...

im. He left in manuscript the work ''Meḳor Minhagim'' ('Source of Customs') on this subject, excerpts of which were published in the yearbook ''Keneset Yisrael'' and in ''Ha-Kerem''. Bampi fostered relationships with both Orthodox Talmudists and progressive

Maskilim The ''Haskalah'' (; literally, "wisdom", "erudition" or "education"), often termed the Jewish Enlightenment, was an intellectual movement among the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, with a certain influence on those in Western Europe and th ...

. Among the scholars he supported was

Kalman Schulman Kalman Schulman (1819 – 2 January 1899) was a Jewish writer who pioneered modern Hebrew literature. Life Schulman was born in 1819 in Bykhaw, Mogilev Governorate, Russian Empire, Russia. He came from a Hasidic Judaism, Hassidic family. Schul ...

, who dedicated the third volume of his work ''Toledot Ḥakme Yisrael'' (Vilna, 1883) to Bampi. He was a dedicated member of the Ḥovevei Zion of Minsk, actively contributed to various charitable institutions, and played a significant role in communal affairs. After his death, Bampi's extensive library, comprising about 6,000 volumes of mostly Hebraica, was sold to Aryeh Leib Friedland. This collection formed an important part of the Friedland collection, eventually donated by its owner to the library of the

Asiatic Museum The Asiatic Museum (Азиатский музей) in Saint Petersburg was one of the first museums of Asian art in Europe. Its existence spanned 112 years from 1818 to 1930 when it was incorporated into the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of th ...

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

. Many of Bampi's books contain handwritten marginal notes.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bampi, Issachar Dov-Ber 1823 births 1888 deaths 19th-century Jews from the Russian Empire 19th-century writers from the Russian Empire People from Minsk Russian book and manuscript collectors Zionists from the Russian Empire