On the Passing of Yeshayahu Vinograd, the Bibliographer and the Man

Moshe Dovid Chechik

Yeshayahu Vinograd (1933–2020), the renowned scholar and bibliographer, passed away on Thursday, 7 May 2020. He authored Otzar ha-Sefer ha-‘Ivri (Thesaurus of the Hebrew Book), Otzar Sifrei ha-Gra (Thesaurus of the Books of the Vilna Gaon), and (published) Siddur Ezor Eliyahu. The following reminiscences were written by Moshe Dovid Chechik at the request of the editors of The Seforim Blog, and translated from the Hebrew by Daniel Tabak.

While most frontmatter is forgettable, one of the most amazing prefaces that I will never forget is the one composed by Reb Shaya of blessed memory for his magnum opus, Otzar ha-Sefer ha-‘Ivri (Thesaurus of the Hebrew Book). If there were an anthology of prefaces, an entire section would be dedicated to this one, as it is truly sui generis. Its heading reads “Preface and Acknowledgments,” but only the latter is accurate. Spanning nearly four folio-sized pages is a list of every institution and individual who assisted in the writing of the book. Considering that this was a labor of many years, it was only natural that a goodly number of people would make contributions, and so Reb Shaya, a bibliographer through and through, remembered each and every one of them, dedicating a line or two or three to mark their efforts.

This preface encapsulates some of Reb Shaya’s most beloved attributes. First and foremost, he was a diligent collector of all things. In this introductory frontmatter—as in his writings themselves—he amassed all of the relevant particulars, because the omission of even one would mar the final product. Naturally, this was inextricably bound up with Reb Shaya’s characteristically phenomenal memory, as well as his drive to be as precise as possible—not to over- or understate matters, but to delineate precisely what we know and what we do not. Finally, it reflects his good-heartedness, how he found joy in sharing in the success of others and in sharing of himself with others.

In the preface, Reb Shaya did not forget about himself and so provided us with a rough self-eulogy:

The National and University Library [of Israel] served as my home and as my primary source of information and bibliographical data. […] The catalogue room [today, the computer lab] served as my main office for years, and many visitors to the library considered me staff, addressing their questions and even complaints to me… [points of ellipsis in the original].

These are the wonderful qualities that made Reb Shaya who he was. He could not have been further from the stereotype of the stodgy bibliographer who lives in a world of dry facts.

Reb Shaya’s sarcastic wit was ever-present. Thirteen years ago, a few months after I moved into his neighborhood, I ran into him on his way to the Mahane Yehuda market. At the time, we didn’t know each other. I stopped him with some hesitation and asked him when the new edition of the siddur Ezor Eliyahu would be printed. In response he asked, “Are you Chechik?” I nodded, bewildered, as if I had been caught red-handed. In an undertone I remarked that I really hope he didn’t ask every passerby if they are Chechik. He gave a hearty laugh and quickly reassured me that he bore me no grudge for the critical review I had penned two years earlier on the siddur. Quite the contrary, he added, he thought the criticism was well placed. Faced with his grin and bright eyes, I couldn’t help but believe him. We were friends ever since, and recently he reminded me of our first encounter, making sure I remembered my amusing retort.

R. Shaya’s daily route to and from the market passed under my window, allowing him to grab me for a chat when he liked. And since the stop for the 7 bus to the National Library was located under the window to his office on Bezalel Street opposite Hagidem, it gave me a chance to engage him in conversation. He would beam when reporting on the progress of every edition of the siddur, which he never ceased updating and improving, and he insisted on gifting me a copy of every edition, paying no mind to my protests.

He spoke to everyone as an equal. The age gap of fifty years that separated us never surfaced in our conversations. Neither did the immense store of knowledge he carried around. I was always astounded by his insatiable curiosity for new fields or unfamiliar topics. This was no passing interest, as he always remembered to press me about whether I had looked into something or had found a balm for some burning question of his.

R. Shaya’s trademark was his constant smile. As a neighbor, I can say that I never saw him get angry at anyone.

In recent years, when R. Shaya was already in his eighties, his main efforts were expended on a work that he unfortunately never completed. This was the Otzar ha-Ziyyufim, a compendium intended to document every instance of a Hebrew press mentioning an incorrect imprint—for whatever reason—on a title page. This painstaking work demanded a detective’s perceptive hunch, a historian’s vast knowledge, a bibliophile’s intimate familiarity with countless volumes, and, of course, a taxonomist’s complex classification scheme, which he himself had to devise and define. The illness and passing of his wife brought his work to a full stop, but recently he informed me on several occasions that his work was nearing its conclusion, even if, as we had come to expect, he would find new cases for inclusion on a daily basis. His perfectionism confined his final work to a drawer.

It is difficult to capture R. Shaya’s enormous contribution to the world of Hebrew bibliography, for which we owe him a tremendous debt. Who knows how many hours and days he saved us with the meticulously written and organized Otzar ha-Sefer ha-‘Ivri. More than twenty-five years since its publication, and in spite of the impressive technological advances of recent decades, this colossal work of Reb Shaya the bibliographer has yet to be superseded. But for his colleagues, friends, and loved ones, there is none who can replace R. Shaya the man, with his wonderful personality, good humor, and wit.

Just to cite a simple example demonstrating this phenomena.  Two hundred years ago there was almost no works devoted to Shevius  (Shmitah), today with each shmitah dozens of works have been written perhaps in the hundreds already. Now that Zeraim is more relevant and more are studying it, the periush of anyone, and more so a super star like Gra, is extremely important. This organization took upon themselves to print Gra’s commentary on Zeraim. This work is not merely a reprint Gra’s commentary on Zeraim, rather it contains much more. Frist, they found the Yerushalmi that the Gra actually used and wrote notes in when learning Yerushalmi! After carefully going through it they mapped out a plan how to go about printing it. In the past few years both the methods and benefits of this find have been written up in various Torah publications amongst them Yeshurun and Moriea. A very in-depth article was printed in the book released from Bar Ilan on the Gra a few years back, HaGra Ubeis Medraso. In each of these articles R. Frankel shows the importance of this find and how it enlightens our understanding of complex Sugyos in Seder Zeraim.

The manuscript was authenticated by experts in Gra’s handwriting. The significance of this is we now more material to help us understand this complex seder which lacks seforim compared to other areas of Torah.

This beautiful edition is composed of many parts. First, they printed the Mishana with the Pirushim of the Rambam’s Pirish Lemishna, Rash mi-Shantz, and Rosh. To ensure accuracy of these texts, all known manuscripts of these commentaries were used, in a critical edition, with many excellent and useful footnotes. Additionally, in this section they also included the perush of Gra on Zeraim – Shenoes Eliyahu reworking it with new additions from manuscripts including notes.

For the second section they use the type from the Yerushalmi printed in Amsterdam that contains R. Eliyhu Mifulda’s work because this is the edition of the Yerushalmi that Gra used and wrote his notes on. In the footnotes, the editors compared this text of the Yerushalmi to other manuscripts. They also reworked the commentary of R. Eliyhu Mifulda adding in many notes to the text. This section also includes a commentary, Biurei ha-Gra. This commentary is from notes of students of Gra which had been printed before. Again, as with the other sections, there exists a few manuscripts of this work, all of which were used for this section. The editors also include many notes to explain this part. Additionally, this section also includes the complete version of Gra’s notes based on the manuscript of his Yerushalmi. These notes were printed a few times but only partially. However, in this edition each one is put in its proper place with different fonts to make it less confusing. This part also has notes to explain what Gra meant. However, not to confuse the user, Gra’s notes appear on the page in their proper places and an in-depth explanation is included after each daf.

After this section they have a part which is composed of in-depth discussion of Gra. For example, Gra, as mentioned above, wrote rather crypitically, and at times, at first glance when one looks at it you no idea what he was trying to say. This is especially true in Gra’s own notes as they was not meant for anyone other than himself. At times, the commentary contains no words just lines, circles, dashes which, as one would imagine, are especially difficult to decipher. The only way one can properly understand  Gra is to have a great understanding of the whole sugyah. Now the whole sugyah means the comparative texts of  other sifrei chazal such as Bavli, Sifra, Sifri, and Mechilta. One also has to have a command of all the Rishonim on the particular Sugyah. This team spent a very long time going through each sugyah with great depth they presented their finds in this section. They did a excellent job of presenting the material they found in a clear and concise manner. The use charts at times and as many works as necessary to get to the bottom of the issues whether it means consulting critical editions or manuscripts of Chazal or Rishonim, dictionaries for the meaning of a word, rishonim and the works of the main achronim. After reading through each chapter in this section they explain exactly what Gra was trying to do, when one sees it one is just amazed to see what Gra meant with just a few words or dashes.

 

To explain what drives Gra to write in such a cryptic manner. The only reason why one is allowed to write Torah is because of a heter of עת לעשות לה’  that one will forget. Gra was not scared that he would forget so he just wrote very shorthand to remind him of what how he understand the Sugyah. I also assumed this was yet another legend that they say about Gra, but when one looks at this Yerushalmi where they reproduced the pages with Gra’s notes one can see this very clearly its no legend. The pages are full of dots, cross outs, circles, dashes and one word here and there. To the untrained eye it looks like nothing. This Mechon has shown the incredible wisdom behind each one of those markings. Another Godol who used this style of Gra was R. Nosson Adler. R. Auerbach famous for the Eshkol printed these notes also they were one word here and there lines dashes and he explained them. People accused Auerbach of forging this work too but I believe it has been proven that it is an Authentic work. See Hurowitz, Rabbanei Frankfurt (pp. 151-152). R. Chanoach Erentru brings from his Rebbe,  R. Fevel Palut, a student of the Chasam Sofer the following:

ר’ נתן אדלר אמר שהתירו לכתוב את התורה שבעל פה רק מפני החשש שמא תשכח התורה מישראל לפי זה אמר אין הוא רשאי להשתמש בהתיר זה כי אין הוא שוכח דבר. ואמר עליו שלא רק  שידע את כל התלמוד בעל פה אלא גם מעולם לא שכח דבר מכל ספרות הראשונים (עיונים בדברי חז”ל ובלשונם, עמ’ סו).

In the last section of this work they show exactly what Gra wrote and each of Gra’s notes, big or small, are reproduced in a high quality picture and blown up they than write underneath each photo exactly what they believe Gra was doing. This section at times due to spilling of ink and other problems they could not read some of the writing in the orginal manuscript they than consulted with the the Israeli police department to read some of the comments with infrared magnifiers. They even were helped by NASA to read some particularly difficult parts! I would assume this is the first time they were consulted for help in printing a rabbinical text.

This work is a labor of love as it is obvious from going through it. In the past bunch of years I do not recall any sefer that shows such meticulous preparation for publication. One can see how much the editor R. Frankel believes in the importance of his project. It is printed on beautiful paper, the the size of the volume is very tall making it very usable. The fonts and print of each page are also very well done making it not only beautiful in content but matching in looks. The editor was helped by a very small team of people who mastered Seder Zeraim over years of learning through it as did he. It took many years for this volume to be printed and it is a small part of the whole seder Zeraim very large sums of money were spent to get the project going but it still requires more to complete the project. For more information on purchasing this volume or helping with this project contact them at yedidiyah@hotmail.com. See also here.

I wish them much luck in completing this very special important project.