Jacob ben Moses Bachrach (born in Seiny, in the governorate of Suwalki, which is now in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, May 9, 1824; died in Bialystok December 29, 1896) was a noted apologist of

Rabbinic Judaism Rabbinic Judaism (), also called Rabbinism, Rabbinicism, Rabbanite Judaism, or Talmudic Judaism, is rooted in the many forms of Judaism that coexisted and together formed Second Temple Judaism in the land of Israel, giving birth to classical rabb ...

. He was descended from Rabbi Yair Chayim Bacharach, and in turn from the Maharal of Prague. He received his earliest instruction from his grandfather, Judah Bachrach. For years he was superintendent of a Hebrew printing-establishment in

Königsberg Königsberg (; ; ; ; ; ; , ) is the historic Germany, German and Prussian name of the city now called Kaliningrad, Russia. The city was founded in 1255 on the site of the small Old Prussians, Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teuton ...

, where he edited, among other works, the '' Ṭurim'' of Jacob ben Asher, and added notes to the same. Later on he became manager of a distillery in

Sevastopol Sevastopol ( ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea and a major port on the Black Sea. Due to its strategic location and the navigability of the city's harbours, Sevastopol has been an important port and naval base th ...

, 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 Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

in the interest of colonization.

Published works

* ''Ha-yaḥas Liketab Ashuri'' (History of the Assyrian Script), Warsaw, 1854, a polemical treatise against

Elia Levita Elia Levita (13 February 146928 January 1549) (), also known as Elijah Levita, Elias Levita, Élie Lévita, Elia Levita Ashkenazi, Eliahu Levita, Eliyahu haBahur ("Elijah the Bachelor"), Elye Bokher, was a Renaissance Hebrew grammarian, schol ...

's theory that vowel points and accents originated in post-

Talmudic 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 modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewi ...

times. * To the same purpose is devoted his ''Ishtadalut 'im Shadal'' (An Engagement with ShaDaL), 2 vols., Warsaw, 1896—in which he again attempts to refute Shadal/Luzzatto's view, based on that of Levita, that the vowel points are the invention of the

Masoretes The Masoretes (, lit. 'Masters of the Tradition') were groups of Jewish scribe- scholars who worked from around the end of the 5th through 10th centuries CE, based primarily in the Jewish centers of the Levant (e.g., Tiberias and Jerusalem) an ...

. * ''Maämare Jacob ha-Bakri'' (Essays of Jacob Bachrach), Warsaw, 1893, 2 vols., is a work devoted to proving that the

Hebrew calendar The Hebrew calendar (), also called the Jewish calendar, is a lunisolar calendar used today for Jewish religious observance and as an official calendar of Israel. It determines the dates of Jewish holidays and other rituals, such as '' yahrze ...

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. * ''Ha-Massa' la-Areẓ ha-Ḳedoshah'', his description of his journey to Palestine, 2d ed., Kiev, 1884.

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bachrach, Jacob Ben Moses 1824 births 1896 deaths Judaism in Poland