Ephraim Urbach | |
---|---|
אפרים אורבך | |
Born | 1912 (age 111–112) Włocławek, Poland |
Died | July 3, 1991(1991-07-03) (aged 78–79) Jerusalem, Israel |
Nationality | Poland Israel |
Occupations |
|
Known for |
|
Awards |
|
Academic work | |
Discipline | Jewish studies |
Sub-discipline | Rabbinic thought |
Institutions | Hebrew University of Jerusalem |
Notable works | The Sages |
Ephraim Elimelech 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.
A professor of Talmud at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Urbach was a member and president of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
Biography
Ephraim Elimelech Urbach was born in Włocławek, Poland, to a hasidic family. He studied in Rome and Breslau, where he received rabbinic ordination in 1934. He immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1938. During World War II he served for four years as a chaplain in the British army. Subsequently he served as director of Ma'aleh secondary school in Jerusalem, before joining the Hebrew University faculty in 1953.
Urbach died on 3 July 1991 at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem after a long illness. 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.
Awards and recognition
- In 1955, Urbach was awarded the Israel Prize, for Jewish studies.
- In 1983, he was a co-recipient (jointly with Nechama Leibowitz) of the Bialik Prize for Jewish thought.
See also
References
- "Kneset - Previous Presidential Elections". Archived from the original on 5 January 2006. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ "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.
- "העלאות ומינויים באוניברסיטה העורית" [Promotions and appointments at the Hebrew University]. Devar. 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"
- "Israel Prize recipients in 1955 (in Hebrew)". cms.education.gov.il (Israel Prize official website). Archived from the original on 12 June 2012.
- "[List of Bialik Prize recipients 1933–2004]" (PDF) (in Hebrew). Tel Aviv Municipality. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 December 2007.
- Israeli Orthodox rabbis
- Talmudists
- 20th-century Polish rabbis
- British Army personnel of World War II
- Academic staff of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
- Israel Prize in Jewish studies recipients
- Israel Prize Rabbi recipients
- Members of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities
- Hasidic rabbis in Mandatory Palestine
- People from Włocławek
- Polish emigrants to Mandatory Palestine
- Israeli Hasidic rabbis
- 1912 births
- 1991 deaths
- Rabbis in the military
- Israeli anti–nuclear weapons activists
- Burials at the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives
- Presidents of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities
- Candidates for President of Israel