gefez

egrel

ma

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

a Palestinian, but it is more probable that he lived

in Kairwan. He was the author of a work, now lost,
in which, as its name " Sefer ha-Mizwot" indicates,
the 613 commandments were enumerated (see COMMANDMENTS, THE 613). Unlike his predecessors
in this field, Hefez, besides an enumeration of the
laws, gave, in brief, reasons for their existence.
He was thus, perhaps, the first in the field of the
" Ta'ame ha-Mizwot," which afterward had so many
exponents. Moreover, the " Sefer ha-Mizwot" contained not only the Biblical ordinances, but also their
Talmudic-rabbinical amplifications and interpretations. Hefez gave what maybe described as a brief
summary of Biblical, Talmudic, and geonic literature, including also formulas for prayer. The book
was highly esteemed by the Spanish and GermanFrench authorities, and the decisions of its author,
who was referred to as "Gaon," "Resh Kallah,"
and " Alluf," had such authority that even Maimonides acknowledged himself under obligation to him
(comp. his responsum in "Pe'er ha-Dor," No. 140).
Hefez was a grammarian and a philosopher as well
as a halakist, and, what is very remarkable, he managed to express his philological and philosophical
opinions even in his " Sefer ha-Mizwot." Jonah ibn
Janah, Judah ibn Balaam, Solomon Parhon, and
Tanhum Yerushalmi quote grammatical as well as
lexicographical remarks from Hefez's "Sefer haMizwot." To judge from these quotations, Hefez
not only explained the Biblical verses of a legislative nature which he had quoted in his enumeration
of the 613 laws, but also at times referred to passages from Scriptural books other than those of the
Pentateuch; even post-Biblical literature was drawn
upon for the interpretation of Biblical passages.
Hefez was a philosopher of authority, as a quotation from his work in Judah b. Barzillai's commentary to the " Sefer Yezirah " indicates (pp. 55-56).
As Kaufmann has already noted, Bahya ben Joseph
ibn Pakuda's proof of the existence of God from the
combination of the four elements, notwithstanding
their opposing natures ("Hobot ha-Lebabot," i. 6),
is derived from the " Sefer ha-Mizwot" of Hefez.
Bahya's teaching concerning the unity of God and
the anthropomorphism of the Scriptures may probably also be traced back to Hefez, whose work is
quoted by Bahya in the introduction to his book
(comp. Kaufmann in Judah b. Barzillai's Commentary, p. 335). The tosafists, like the other GermanFrench authors, quote legal decisions from the works
of Hefez, while assuming the author of them to have
been R. Hananeel. It has been clearly demonstrated,
however, that not Hananeel, but Hefez, was the
author of the work. The misunderstanding arose
through a false interpretation of the abbreviation
n'D ( }*Sn'D) as SxjJn 'D- Whether the "book
Hefez " is any other than the " Sefer ha-Mizwot" is
still in doubt; it is possible that the " book Hefez "
may mean the "book by Hefez," and therefore the
" Sefer ha-Mizwot." If both refer to the same book,
the " Sefer ha-Miz wot" must have been a voluminous
codex, as the quotations from the "book Hefez"
cover all departments of Jewish lawritual law,
civil law, etc. On the other hand, Rapoport's claim,
which makes Hefez the author also of the " Mik:?o'ot"
(see HANANEEL B. HUSHIEL), has been proved to be

316

without foundation. Nor was Hefez the author of

the"We-Hizhir."
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Berliner, Migdal Hananel, pp. 17-30 (
man part); Bloch, in R. E. J. v. 37-40: Benjacob, Ozarh
Sefarim; Ftirst, in Orient, Lit. x. 110-111; L. Levysohn
x. 247-350; Reifmann, ib. xii. 617; Eapoport, Toledot R
Biananel, pp. 30-33; idem, in Kobak's Jeschurun, v
65; idem. In Wamhetm's Kebuzat Ifakamim, pp. 53-6
8. S.
'
L. G.
HEFKER: Ownerless property, rendered so
either by the formal renunciation of the owner, or
by an act of the court (Git. 36b), or by the death of
a proselyte who has left no Jewish heirs (B. B. 149a;
Maimonides, " Yad," Zekiyyah, i. 6). Property found
in seas, rivers, or deserts is also supposed to be ownerless, and comes under the category of hefker (Shulhan 'Aruk, Hoshen Mishpat, 273, 12, 274, Isserles'
gloss; comp. B. K. 81a, the ten institutions established by Joshua; see TAKKANAH). In all these cases
property of this kind is acquired by the first who
cares to take possession of it. The renunciation of
ownership in property, whether movable or immovable, in order to be valid must be made in the presence of three men (Ned. 45a). The formula of such
a renunciation is very simple: " This my property
shall be hefljer." If no one takes possession of the
property during the first three days, the previous
owner may retract his original statement, but not
after that, although he can always acquire possession
of it in the same manner as any one else (Ned. 44a;
comp. R. Nissim ad loc; "Yad," Nedarim, ii. 17;
Hoshen Mishpat, 273, 9). The renunciation is valid
only when made in general terms, not when it
is declared hefker only to a certain class and not to
another class, as when one declares it hefker for the
poor and not for the rich (Peah vi. 1; Yer. Peah vi.
1; B. M. 30b; comp. "Noda' Biyehuda," series ii.,
to Yoreh De'ah, 154). As to whether property is
legally hefker if one or two individuals have been
specifically excepted by the owner, compare " Nahalat Zebi" to Hoshen Mishpat, 20, 1.
With a few exceptions, the manner of acquiring
is the same in case of hefker as in other cases (see
ALIENATION AND ACQUISITION). While usufructuary

possession for a period of time is sufficient to establish

a claim to real estate when the claim is that it was
sold or given away (see HAZAKAH), such possession
is not sufficient in the case of hefker, where possession must consist of actual acquisition of the object
(B. B. 54a). Painting one portion of a wall in a
house, or plowing a field with the intention of
taking possession of it, is sufficient ("Yad," Nedarim, ii.; Hoshen Mishpat;, 275). All the poor-laws
that pertain to land are disregarded in the case of
hefker property. If, however, the previous owner
takes possession of it again, he is obliged to observe
all those laws, except that of separating the tithes
(" ma'aser": Ned. 44a; " Yad," Mattenot' Aniyim, v.
24). One who has acquired possession of an ownerless
ox need not make restitution for the injuries the ox
had committed before he acquired it (B. If. 13b;
Hoshen Mishpat, 406, 2, 3). See INHERITANCE;
POOR LAWS; PROSELYTES.

s. s.
J. H. G.
HEGEL, GEORG WILHELM FRIEDRICH : German philosopher; born at Stuttgart
1770; died at Berlin 1831. After studying at the ,

317

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

University of Tubingen he became tutor at Bern

and Frankfort-on-the-Main, and lecturer (1801) and
professor (1805) of philosophy at Jena. In 1808 he
became director of a gymnasium at Nuremberg; in
1816, professor at Heidelberg; and in 1818, professor
at Berlin.
Hegel may be said to have been the founder of a
school of thought dominant in Germany until the
rise of modem natural sciences in the beginning of
the later half of the nineteenth century; even now,
though discredited in the land of his birth, it is to
a certain extent represented by prominent thinkers
in England and America. His system has been described as "logical idealism." According to him,
all that is actual or real is the manifestation of spirit
or mind; metaphysics is coincident with logic, which
develops the creative self-movement
His
of spirit as a dialectic and necessary
Philosophy process. God is this self-unfolding
of History, spirit, and in the course of the selfrealizing, free process of unfolding,
creation leaps into being. The world is a development of the principles that form the content of the
divine mind.
The influence of Hegel's system was especially
potent in giving the first impulse toward the elaboration of a philosophy of history. From his point
of view history is a dialectic process, through which
the divine (the absolute mind), in ever fuller measure, is revealed and realized. This absolute is the
unlimited and as such, in the fate of the various nations which represent successive limited and finite
objectifyings of certain particular phases of the dialectic movement, exercises His highest right, and
thus operates in history as the Supreme Judge. This
interpretation of history has since become fundamental in the theology of some of the leaders of the
Jewish Reform movement. It has been made the
basis for assigning to Israel a peculiar task, a mission. Furthermore, it has helped to enlarge and
modify the concept of revelation. Applying these
principles to Jewish history, the Jewish Hegelians
(Samuel HIRSCH especially) have discovered in that
history also the principle of development, a succession of fuller growths, of more complete realizations
in form and apprehension of the particular spirit or
idea represented by Israel in the economy of progressive humanity.
Hegel was also the first seriously to develop a
philosophy of religion. In his lectures on this subject he treatsfirstof the concept of reHis
ligion, then of the positive religion,
Philosophy and finally of the absolute religion.
of Religion. Religion is defined as " thinking the
Absolute,"or "thinking consciousness
of God "; but this thinking is distinct from philosophy in so far as it is not in the form of pure thought,
but in that of feeling and imaginative representation (" Vorstellung "). The Godhead reveals Himself
only to the thinking mind, therefore only to and
through man. Religion, in the main, is knowledge
of God, and of the relation of man to God. Therefore, as rooted in imaginative representation, not in
pare idea, religion operates with symbols, which are
mere forms of empirical existence, but not the speculative content. Yet this content of highest specu-

fefez
Hegel

lative truth is the essential, and is expressed in the

absolute religion. Through the " cultus " (worship)
the Godhead enters the innermost parts (" das Innere ") of His worshipers and becomes real in their
self-consciousness. Religion thus is " the knowledge
of the divine spirit [in Himself] through the medium
of thefinitemind." This distinction between symbol and content, as well as the conception of religion
as the free apprehension, in an ever fuller degree,
of the divine through thefinite(human) mind, was
utilized by Samuel Hirsch in his rejection of the view
that Judaism is Law, and that the ceremonies, regarded by him as mere symbols, are divinely commanded, unchangeable institutions. The idea (or
" Lehre ") is the essential. This idea realizes itself,
imperfectly at first, in symbol, but with its fuller
unfolding the symbols become inadequate to convey the knowledge of God. It was in this way that
Hegel's philosophy of religion became of importance
for modern Jewish thought.
Hegel himself, when treating of positive or definite (" bestimmte ") religion, dealt with Judaism as
only one of the temporary phases through which the
knowledge of God passed in the course
Hegel's of its evolution into the absolute religView of ionChristianity. He divides " beJudaism. stimmte Religion " into (a) natural religions and (b) the religion of " spiritual
[" geistigen "] individuality." In thefirstgroup are
included, besides the lowest, called by him the " immediate" religions, or "religions of magic," the Oriental religionsthe Chinese " religion of measure ";
the Brahman "religion of fantasy"; the Buddhistic "religion of inwardness" ("Insichsein"). Midway between this group and the second he places
Zoroastrianism, which he denominates the " religion
of good," or "of light," and the Syrian religion, designated as the "religion of pain." In the second
group he enumerates the " religion of sublimity "
(Judaism), the " religion of beauty " (the Greek),
and the "religion of utility " ("Zweckmassigkeit"),
or " of intellect" (the Roman).
In thus characterizing Judaism, Hegel practically
restates, in the difficult, almost unintelligible, technical phraseology of his own system, the opinion common to all Christian theologians since Paul. The
unity (of God) as apprehended by Judaism is altogether transcendental. God is indeed known as
"Non-World," "Non-Nature"; but He is merely
cognized as the "Master," the "Lawgiver." Israel
is the particular people of this particular God.
Israel is under the Law; yea, Israel isjforever indissolubly bound up with a particular land (Palestine).
The influence of Hegel is discernible in the writings of Samson Raphael Hirsch, who turned Hegel's
system to good account in defense of
His
Orthodoxy. Samuel Hirsch, on the
Influence other hand, was induced to write his
on Jewish " Religionsphilosophie der Juden " by
Thinkers, the desire to show that his master
Hegel had misunderstood Judaism.
He showed that the central thought in Hegel's system, that man is God's image and that through him
the divine is realized ou earth, is fundamental also
to Judaism. The universal implications of the
God-consciousness, vindicated by Hegel for Chris-

Hegesippus
Heidenheim

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

318

tianity alone, were certainly before that Jewish, in the ing " Josippi Liber Primus " has been changed by a
dialectic process through, which the God-conscious- later hand to "Egesippi." A Bern manuscript of
nessfinallyrose to the climactic harmonizing of Na- the ninth century has " Hegesippus "; while a Vatiture and God (the transcendental and the natural) in can manuscript of the ninth and tenth centuries has
the " absolute religion " (Christianity). The Jewish "Ambrosius" as the author, though without any
God-idea is not barrenly transcendental. The an- foundation. The text of Josephus is treated very
tithesis between God and non-God is overcome in freely in Hegesippusmostly in a shortened form..
the concept of Man (not merely one God-Man) as It was first printed at Paris, 1510, and has been often
reprinted. It was used by the author of the Hebrew
combining the divine and the natural (see GOD).
The theory of Hegel that Judaism is Law, that " Yosippon." See JosEPnus, FLAVIUS.
its motive is fear, that the holiness and wisdom of BIBLIOGRAPHY : Schiirer, Gesch. i. 73 (and the authorities the
cited), 124; Rapoport, in the introduction to Stern's ed. ol
God as cognized by it are attributes merely of the
Parhon's Aruk, p. x., Posen, 1844; Zunz, 67. V. p. 159.
sublime, unapproachable Sovereign, and as such are
G.
beyond the reach of man, as well as the other view
HE-HALTJZ (lit. "the armed," or "the vanthat Judaism is definitively Palestinian, is contrary guard "): Hebrew magazine or year-book which apto the facts of Jewish history. Even the Bible peared irregularly between 1852 and 1889. Its Gershows that religion as reflected by it had progressed man title, " Wissenschaftliche Abhandlungen uber
beyond this stage. The Hegelian method of regard- JUdische Geschichte, Literatur, und Alterthumsing man and mind as under the law of growth, and kunde," indicates the nature of its contents. It was
God, not as a fact, but as a force, prepared the way edited and published by Joshua Heschel Scnorm as
for modern theories of evolution and the science of the realization of a plan mapped out by his friend and
comparative religion.
teacher Isaac Erter, who had died one year before
BIBLIOGRAPHY : Hegel's Werke, especially Vorlesungen Uber
the first volume appeared. Geiger, A. Krochmal,
die Philosophie der Religion, Berlin, 1833; Samuel Hirsch,
S. Reggio, M. Dubs, and M. Steinschneider were
Die ReligionsphilosopMe der Juden, Leipsic, 1843; J.
Pfleiderer, Gesch. der ReligionsphilosopMe, Berlin, 1883;among
Pun- the contributors to the earlier volumes, the
ier, Gesch. der ReligionsphilosopMe, Brunswick, 1880,1883;
major portion of which, however, was written by
Windelband, History of Philosophy (transl.), New York,
1898; Zeller, Gesch. der Deutsclien Philosophic seittheLeibeditor. The articles in the later volumes were
nitz, 2d ed., Munich, 1875.
written by Schorr exclusively. The dates and
E. G. H.
places of publication are as follows: vols, i.-iii.
HEGESIPPTJS: 1. One of the earliest writers Lemberg, 1852-56; iv.-vi. Breslau, 1859-61; vii.of the Christian Church; lived at Rome, whither he viii. Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1865-69; ix.-xi. Prague,
had gone about 150 from Palestine or Syria, by 1873-80; xii.-xiii. Vienna, 1887-89.
way of Corinth; died about 189. According to
" He-Haluz" was the most radical of Hebrew
Eusebius, he was by birth a Jew; and though this is periodical publications, and Schorr's bold attacks on
only an induction on the part of Eusebius, it may be the great rabbinical authorities, and even on the
accepted tras true. He wrote, in five books/a work Talmud, aroused intense opposition. Entire works,
entitled trrop.vrjuara Wivre, or TLevrs ^vfypapfiara,
like A. M. Harmolin's "Ha-Holez " (Lemberg, 1861)
a historical apology for Christianity, in which he at- and Meir Kohn BISTRITZ'S "Bi'ur Tit ha-Yawen"
tempts to prove the truth and continuity/of Christian (German title, "O. H. Schorr's Talmudische Exedoctrine in the apostolic churches and /also the suc- gesen," Presburg, 1888), were written to disprove its
cession of bishops. It was indirectly aimed against statements, and few men were subjected to so much
Gnosticism and heresies in general. Of Jewish he- vindictive criticism and gross personal abuse as its
retical sects he mentions seven (Eusebius, "Hist. editor, who was equally unsparing in his counterEccl." iv. 21): Essenes, Galileans, Hemerobaptists, attacks. Many of his extreme views on Talmudical
Masbotheans, Samaritans, Sadducees, and Pharisees. subjects were, however, rejected even by radical
He cites the apocryphal gospels of the Hebrews and critics (see Geiger, " Jild. Zeit." iv. 67-80).
of the Syrians, Jewish traditions, and Judaeo-Chrisj.
P. Wi.
tian literary productions. He is thus an important
HEIDELBERG:
University
town
in
the
grand
authority for Jewish heresies and for the earliest
history of the Christian Church. Only fragments duchy of Baden, Germany; it has a population of
of the 'YTrouvr/fiara have been preservedin the40,240, including 882 Jews. The community there
" Historia Ecclesiastica" of Eusebius and (one ex- dates from the middle of the thirteenth century, as is
shown by historical references to the presence of Jews
tract) in Photius, "Bibliotheca," p. 232.
in the neighborhood of Heidelberg during the reign
BIBLIOGRAPHY : Hilgenleld, in Zeitschrift fUr WissenschaftII. (1253-94). In 1300 the protected Jew
liche Theologie, 1878, p. 304; idem, Ketzergesch. pp.of30,Ludwig
84;
Harnack, Gesch. der Altchristlichen Litteratur, i. Anselm
483;
lived in the town itself; in 1321 there were
idem, Chronologie der Altchristlichen Litteratur, i.several
180 et
seq.; Holtzmann, Lehrbuch der Neutestamentlichen The- others there; and in 1349 Jews were among
ologie, p. 104; the literature cited by Weizsacker, in Her-those who suffered during the Black Death. Howzog-Hauck, Real-Encyc. vii. 531.
ever, it is probable that but few were martyred, for
2. Presumed name of the author of a free Latin the elector Rupert I. made Heidelberg at that time
translation, infivebooks, of the " Wars of the Jews " a place of refuge for Jews fleeing from Worms,
of Josephus; lived in the second half of the fourth Speyer, and other places. From the middle of the
century. The name is merely a corruption of "Jo- fourteenth century onward Jews were regularly resephus"; it occurs as "Josephus" as early as the ceived in Heidelberg under comparatively favorable
fifth century, in Eucherius, and as late as the tenth, conditions. The " Hochmeister " (rabbi) Lebelang
in Widerkind of Saxony. In the latter part of the was granted protection, and permission to open at
Ambrosian manuscript (8th or 9th cent.) the head- Heidelberg or in some other place in the Palatinate a