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Homilies on the weekly Torah readings by R. Meir ben Levi of Zolkiew. The title page states that the contents were gleaned from the geonim and it is very sharp, to sharpen the talmidim. Most of R. Meir’s works were printed earlier in Frankfort on the Oder and have since disappeared from the market, only one to be found in a city and two to a family. R. Gershon Gruenstat of Offenbach has financed publication. There is a brief introduction from the author followed by prefatory remarks from R. Gruenstat. Next is the text in a single column in rabbinic type. Mikshah Zahav is peshat primarily based on the Talmud.
Roedelheim was a town in the vicinity of Frankfort on the Main. In 1290 Roedelheim received permission from Rudolf II to accept six Jews, and in 1371 there is evidence of a Jewish settlement there. From that time until the middle of the 17th century there is no record of the presence of Jews in the town. Before the end of the 17th century, however, services were conducted in a prayer room. In 1711 refugees from the conflagration at the Frankfort ghetto joined the Jews of Roedelheim and in 1730 a synagogue was built; the community maintained a cemetery and an inn as well.
About 1750 the Hebrew printer, Karl Reich, transferred his press from Homburg to Roedelheim. In 1799 Wolf Heidenheim established what was called an "oriental and occidental printing house," where he published, among other things, classical editions of liturgical texts. After his death in 1832 his partner Lehrberger printed S. Baer's famous Siddur, Avodat Yisrael (1868) and other liturgical works. The clear Roedelheim texts were still being reproduced over a hundred years later. In the years 1837–38 a new synagogue was erected in the town. About 400 Jews, mainly livestock merchants, lived there and constituted 33% of the total population. The community subsequently declined to 236 in 1880 (6% of the population) and to 100 in 1932, being later absorbed by the Frankfort community. |
