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Bidding Information
Lot #
14175
Auction End Date
4/25/2006 12:12:53 PM (mm/dd/yyyy)
Title Information
Title (English)
Iggrot Bekorot
Title (Hebrew)
אגרת בקורת
Author
[Eunuch] R. Jacob Emden
City
Altona
Publisher
The Author
Publication Date
1765
Collection Information
Independent Item
This listing is an independent item not part of any collection
Description Information
Physical
Description
Second edition. 25, [1] ff., 297:182 mm., wide margins, light age staining. A very good copy bound in modern half vallum over boards.
Detailed
Description
Responsa on the laws of eunuch by R. Jacob Emden (pen name Yavez; derived from Ya'akov Ben Zevi; 1697–1776), rabbi, halakhic authority, kabbalist, and anti-Shabbatean polemicist. Yavez was regarded as one of the outstanding scholars of his generation. Yavez's teacher was his father R. Zevi Hirsch Ashkenazi (Hakham Zevi). He inherited his father's interest in secular studies, his dissociation from the Ashkenazi method of study (pilpul) and customs, his stormy, independent, and uncompromising character, and his devotion to the campaign against the Shabbateans and their sympathizers. In addition, he possessed a fine literary talent, a critical tendency and a knowledge unusual for his age of general non-halakhic Jewish literature. He was also familiar with sciences and languages (German, Dutch, Latin). Despite his distinguished descent and his remarkable talmudic attainments, R. Emden occupied no official position, with the exception of a few years as rabbi of Emden (1728–1733). This made it possible for him to be exceptionally critical toward the society and the tradition of his time. He was more on guard about anything that he considered hillul ha-Shem (bringing the name of the Jew into disrepute) than for the good name of the rabbinate and of the community. He made extensive use of the private printing press he founded in Altona to disseminate his views. As a result, because of his views on a number of issues, both personal and communal, he became a figure of contention. His important halakhic works are: Lehem Shamayim, on the Mishnah (pt. 1, 1728; pt. 2, 1768); a letter of criticism against R. Ezekiel Katzenellenbogen, rabbi of Altona (1736); responsa, She'elat Yavez (2 pts. 1738–59), Mor u-Kezi'ah, on the Shulhan Arukh, OH, (2 pts., 1761–68). In addition, he published an important edition of the prayer book (whose parts had different names) with a valuable commentary (1745–48). This prayer book was reprinted several times. His main historical importance lies in his campaigns against the Shabbateans to which he dedicated many years. He relentlessly examined and investigated every suspicious phenomenon pertaining to the sect. He called upon the contemporary rabbis to publish excommunications and mercilessly attacked anyone suspected of supporting or showing sympathy to the Shabbateans. The Shabbateans were accustomed to introduce hints of their secret doctrine into their literary works, particularly in the field of Kabbalah. Consequently, R. Emden became an expert in uncovering such allusions and hidden meanings, and developed an extraordinarily sharp critical faculty by which he could recognize any suggestion of the Shabbatean heresy. Many books in which no one saw anything to which objection could be taken, were condemned by him as heretical. Though at times he was at fault and suspected the innocent without cause, his judgment in general was sound.
Paragraph 2
...להודיע...כל דיני סריס ופצוע. ונכרת...במשפט קציצת ביצת בהרת. ע"י סכין... תשובה נצחת...
Reference
Description
CD-EPI 0182714; M. A. Wagenaar, Toledot Yavez (1868); Y. Raphael, in Aresheth, 3 (1961), 231–76; EJ
Associated Images
2 Images
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Order
Image
Caption
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Listing Classification
Period
18th Century:
Checked
Location
Germany:
Checked
Subject
Responsa:
Checked
Characteristic
Language:
Hebrew
Manuscript Type
Kind of Judaica
