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Critical and negative response to Isaac Hirsch Weiss’s Dor Dor ve-Dorshav (1871–91), a five volume history of the Oral Law from its beginning (biblical times) until after the expulsion from Spain by R. Asher Simhah Weissmann. Dor Dor ve-Dorshav, the subject of this critique, deals not only with the sequence of the halakhah, but also with the development of the aggadah, with the history of talmudic and rabbinic literature and with the character traits of important sages. Although widely accepted by many Talmudic scholars as the standard history of the oral law, it also was the subject of less positive replies from others. Teshuvot u-Ma’anot Nimrazot is among those less favorable responses, stating that it is on the false arguments and reasons in the book Dor Dor ve-Dorshav. The lower part of the title page has German text, giving the author’s name as Arthur Weissmann. There is an introduction from R. Weissmann, followed by the text, set in a single column in square letters. R. Weissmann is not only critical of R. Weissmann, but also does not abstain from remarks about personalities. This copy has the original wrappers bound with it.
Other critical works on Dor Dor ve-Dorshav were written by Isaac Halevy in his Dorot ha-Rishonim; Eleazar Zarkes published a criticism of the work in Keneset ha-Gedolah (iv., part 2, pp. 65 et seq.), and Simhah Edelmann issued a small pamphlet entitled Ma'amar Doreshe Reshumot (Warsaw, 1893), in which he endeavored to make evident Weiss's mistakes.
Weiss, who belonged to the Haskalah generation, frequently imposed his own view upon the sources and described the characters of scholars and works in accordance with his own views. Sometimes he drew general conclusions from particular points or concepts without properly examining the material. Nevertheless, it was a highly influential work.
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