Lajos Blau - Biography

Lajos Blau (April 29, 1861 – 1936; German: Ludwig Blau) was a Hungarian scholar and publicist born at Putnok, Hungary, and educated at three different yeshivot, among them that of Presburg, and at the Landesrabbinerschule in Budapest (1880–88). He studied philosophy and Orientalia at the Budapest University, received there the degree of Ph.D. cum laude in 1887, and the rabbinical diploma in 1888.

In 1887 Blau became teacher of the Talmud at the Landesrabbinerschule, in 1888 substitute, and in 1889 professor of the Bible, the Hebrew and Aramaic languages, and the Talmud. Beginning in 1899 he was also librarian and tutor in Jewish history. He was in 1902 president of the folk-lore section of the Jewish-Hungarian Literary Society, and editor of the Magyar Zsido Szemle. He died in 1936.

Works

Blau's scientific publications have dealt chiefly with the following topics:

• Literature and life of the Jews in the Talmudic and early post-Talmudic periods, for example:
  • Beiträge zur Erklärung der Mechilta und des Sifre, in the Steinschneider Festschrift, 1896
  • Quelques Notes sur Jésus ben Sirach, in Revue Etudes Juives, xxxv. 19-47
  • Das Altjüdische Zauberwesen, Strasbourg, 1898
• The Jewish traditions regarding the Masorah, for example:
  • Massoretische Untersuchungen, Strasburg, 1891
  • Masoretic Studies, in Jewish Quarterly Review, viii., ix.)
• The canon of Scripture, for example:
  • Zur Einleitung in die Heilige Schrift, Strasburg, 1894. This work is especially valuable for the light it throws upon the history of the Bible text in the early synagogue.

Blau also published Der Concursus Vitiorum nach Talmudischem Recht, Budapest, 1887; and Die Erwählung Israel's (in Hungarian), ib. 1890; and contributed to the Monatsschrift, Zeitschrift für Hebräische Bibliographie, Jahrbuch des Ungarischen Litteraturvereines, Jahrbuch der Deutschen Litteraturvereines, etc.

• Ózsidó bűvészet reprint in Hungarian - Printed 2005 - Gabbiano Print Kft. Budapest
• A Talmudról - reprint in Hungarian - Printed 2007 - Gabbiano Print Kft. Budapest

External links

• Jewish Encyclopedia article for Ludwig Blau, by Isidore Singer and Richard Gottheil