Ephraim Urbach

Ephraim Urbach
Ephraim Urbach
אפרים אלימלך אורבך
Born	1912 (age 111–112); Włocławek, Poland
Died	July 3, 1991 (aged 78–79); Jerusalem, Israel
Nationality	Poland Israel
Occupations	Scholar of Judaism; Professor of Talmud;
Known for	The Sages; Research on the Tosafot;
Awards	Israel Prize (1955); Bialik Prize (1983);
Academic work
Discipline	Jewish studies
Sub-discipline	Rabbinic thought
Institutions	Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Notable works	The Sages

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.^{[citation needed]}

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

In 1955, Urbach was awarded the Israel Prize, for Jewish studies.^[6]
In 1983, he was a co-recipient (jointly with Nechama Leibowitz) of the Bialik Prize for Jewish thought.^[7]

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)
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Ephraim E. Urbach; Hebrew Scholar, 79". The New York Times. 3 July 1991.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "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.