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Category: Printing Presses & Places

What’s Wrong With Wealth and Honor?

What’s Wrong With Wealth and Honor?

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Below, we will present some timely notes regarding an English/Hebrew Machzor for Rosh Hashana which was printed in England in 1807. We will touch upon a variety of issues, and thus first present general backgrounds regarding Hebrew printing in London, the prayer for the state, and Kol Nidrei. Hebrew Typography in London The earliest use of Hebrew typography in England is sometime in the middle to the late 1520s. Of course, at that time, Jews were banned from England and…

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Using a Colophon to Find a Shidduch: on Ella the Zetser.

Using a Colophon to Find a Shidduch: on Ella the Zetser.

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There has been much talk lately about the so called Shidduch crisis. Various initiatives have been proposed to address this problem, all of which are well meaning and well thought out. Many might be surprised to learn that an interesting approach was suggested by a 12 year old girl in the town of Frankfurt on Oder way back in 1699. This approach was based on a Pasuk in Yirmiyahu which deals with Messianic times. We are all familiar with the…

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Eliyahu Bachur in Isny

Eliyahu Bachur in Isny

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Dan Yardeni, an engineer by profession (Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, 1963), is entrepreneur specializing in cutting edge materials and materials production processes. As sideline, he researches problems in the history of Hebrew books printing and printers. He also contributes articles to the Culture and Literature sections of Haaretz and other Israeli newspapers. This is his first post at the Seforim blog. A little street in Tel Aviv commemorates the personality of a colorful Jewish culture hero at the…

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The Ancillary Benefits of Non-Jews on the Hebrew Book

The Ancillary Benefits of Non-Jews on the Hebrew Book

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In the history of the Hebrew book, the books, like the Jews themselves, have been subject to external persecution. Thus, some books and manuscripts have been totally lost. On the other hand there are a few examples of books or, as we shall soon demonstrate, technices that are are a product of external influences. Abraham Ibn Ezra had a very hard life. In his well-known formulation that appears at the beginning of his commentary to the Humash, he complains that…

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R. Shabbtai the Bassist, the First Hebrew Bibliographer

R. Shabbtai the Bassist, the First Hebrew Bibliographer

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The JNUL has just put up the first Hebrew bibliography, Siftei Yeshenim. This work is written by R. Shabbtai Bass. R. Shabbtai is perhaps most well known for his commentary on Rashi ‘al haTorah titled Siftei Hakhamim. R. Shabbtai was born in 1641 in Kalisz, Poland. When he was 14, both his parents were killed in a pogrom by the Cossacks. R. Shabbtai went to Prague. It was in Prague where he would gain his last name and begin his…

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Hebrew Printing in America 1735-1926 – Review II

Hebrew Printing in America 1735-1926 – Review II

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The post below is a continuation from this prior post. America posed some unique questions regarding marriage and divorce laws. In the early period of American Jewish history, many people were not erudite. In an apparent effort to help with this deficiency, in 1901, R. Dov Baer Abramowitz published his Sefer Ketubah. This book contains tear out, pro forma ketubot. Thus, the Rabbi could just rip one out whenever he needed to. (No. 588). Another work which dealt with marriage…

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Hebrew Printing in America 1735-1926 – Review I

Hebrew Printing in America 1735-1926 – Review I

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There is a new work in Jewish bibliography focusing on American Jews. This work “Hebrew Printing in America 1735-1926: A History and Annotated Bibliography” by Yosef Goldman. (It can be obtained by contacting Y. Goldman at ygbooks -at- yahoo.com). As the subtitle states, is much more than a bibliography. This work, is at the very least the starting point for any research on American Jewery, and can be viewed as a history of American Jewry. The book includes a listing…

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Prague 1526 Haggadah

Prague 1526 Haggadah

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The Prague haggadah is filled with fascinating and important illustrations. As we have seen previously, the Prague haggadah contained nudes, which when appropriated later were removed. This included in the haggadah context as well as in other works. Aside from these illustrations, there is an illustration of Abraham when God takes him “from the other side of the river.” In the Prague haggadah we have Abraham in a row boat. However, when this was appropriated in the Mantau, 1560 haggadah,…

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Comparison Between De’ah veDibur and Shafan haSofer

Comparison Between De’ah veDibur and Shafan haSofer

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While I don’t have the time to go through the entire Dei’ah veDibur article and demonstrate the extant of the copying, I will provide some of the more egreious examples. Here is a quote from the Dei’ah veDibur article (in italics) with the orginal Hebrew intersperced and my commnets in bold. One should remember that the original article was written in first person. The first manuscript that the Romm family obtained was Rabbenu Chananel’s commentary which now appears alongside the…

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Haredi Robbers

Haredi Robbers

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Although we have alluded to the fact that Haredim “borrow” from others without attribution, I have come across a particularly egregious example. Here, is an article discussing the Romm Press and what became known as the Vilna Shas. Although the byline states that it was written “by Yated Ne’eman Staff” this is a wholesale reproduction of R. Shmuel Feigenshon’s article on this topic. Shmuel Feigenshon (Shafan HaSofer) was the editor of the Rom press for many years. He wrote a…

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Pashkevilin (Broadsides)

Pashkevilin (Broadsides)

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Pashekevilin, or broadsides, are commonplace all over Israel, but perhaps they are most associated with Meah She’arim area of Jerusalem. There is a permenant exhibit on some of these at JTS. There is now a book devoted to these. The book, Pashkevilin: Modo’t Kir u’kruzot Pulmus b’rehovot haharedi (“Broadsides: Wall Announcements and Polemical Proclomations in the Ha’redi Street”) contains three articles and 150+ pages with pictures of these broadsides. The first article is by Menachem Friedman (a recent topic on…

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