PINES, JEHIEL MICHAEL:

By: Herman Rosenthal, A. S. Waldstein

Russian Talmudist and Hebraist; born at Rozhany, government of Grodno, Sept. 26, 1842. He was the son of Noah Pines and the son-in-law of Shemariah Luria, rabbi of Moghilef. After being educated in the local Hebrew school and in the yeshibah, where he distinguished himself in Talmudic study, he became a merchant, giving lectures at the same time in the yeshibah of his native town. He was elected delegate to a conference held in London by the association Mazkereth Mosheh, for the establishment of charitable institutions in Palestine in commemoration of the name of Sir Moses Montefiore; in 1878 he was sent to Jerusalem to establish and organize such institutions. He has lived since then in Palestine, working for the welfare of the Jewish community and interesting himself in the organization of Jewish colonies in Palestine. He was excommunicated by the Palestinian rabbis for interfering in communal affairs, but was sustained by the European rabbinates. He is now (1905) director of the Ashkenazic hospital at Jerusalem and lecturer at several of the yeshibot. He has written: "Yalde Ruḥi" (part i., "Rab 'Ammi," Mayence, 1872, on the position of Israel among the nations; part ii., "Ha-Ḥayim weha-Yahadut," ib., 1873, on the relation of Judaism to the times); "Torat Mishpeṭe Togarma" (in collaboration with his son-in-law David Yellin; Jerusalem, 1887); "'Abodat ha-Adamah," on agriculture in Palestine (Warsaw, 1891). He was one of the founders of the Orthodox biweekly journal "Ha-Lebanon" (1864), has edited and annotated Shershevsky's "'Olam Ḳaṭan," on anatomy and chemistry (Jerusalem, 1886), and has contributed to numerous journals and magazines published in Hebrew.

H. R. A. S. W.