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Bidding Information
Lot #    15964
Auction End Date    10/24/2006 11:20:30 AM (mm/dd/yyyy)
          
Title Information
Title (English)    Tobia ben Elieser's Commentar zu Threni
Title (Hebrew)    (Lekach Tob) Zum ersten male nach ms. München
Author    [Only Ed. - Noted Copy] Dr. Jakob Nacht
City    Frankfort am Main
Publisher    J. Kauffmann (Druck von H. Itzkowski)
Publication Date    1895
          
Collection Information
Independent Item    This listing is an independent item not part of any collection
          
Description Information
Physical
Description
   Only edition. 31 pp., 223:142 mm., nice margins, usual light age staining. A good copy not bound, front wrapper present.
          
Paragraph 1    Autographed by the author.
          
Detailed
Description
   This copy is autographed by the author and dedicated as a gift to the National Library in Jerusalem. Note that there are libraries that have this title where the pagination is 31, 36 pp. indicating that our copy may be missing the last 36 pages (probably the Hebrew text). A German translation of the Lekach Tob commentary on Lamentations from a manuscript. The commentary was written by Toviyahu ben Eli`ezer, (11th cent.) and translated here by Dr. Jakob Nacht.

Midrash Lekah Tov - a late 11th-century Midrash on the Pentateuch and Five Scrolls by Tobias b. Eliezer. The author called it Lekah Tov ("good doctrine") on the basis of its opening verse (Prov. 4:2): "For I give you good doctrine" which he chose with allusion to his name (for the same reason he begins his interpretations of the weekly portions of Scripture and of the Scrolls with a verse containing the word tov, "good"). Tobias lived in the Balkans, and his Midrash contains allusions to contemporary historical events and specific reference to the martyrs of the First Crusade of 1096 (in the portion Emor and in his commentary on the verse "Therefore do the maidens love thee": Song 1:3). Tobias took the ideas he needed from the Babylonian Talmud, the halakhic Midrashim, and the early aggadic Midrashim (including some no longer extant), as well as from the early mystical literature and used them as the basis of his Midrash. He did not however quote them literally nor as a rule did he mention their authors. He translated Aramaic passages as well as Greek and Latin terms into Hebrew; abridged the language of the early authors; and even combined their sayings and refashioned them. He tended to quote scriptural verses from memory, which explains the many variations from the standard text.

The work also contains hundreds of explanations by Tobias himself, some in the style of the midrashic literature and some giving the literal meaning. He expounds the keri and the ketiv, the masorah, gematriot, and notarikon and also gives many mnemotechnical devices in the manner of the rabbis. His literal explanations are based on the rules of grammar, vocalization, accentuation, etc. It is noteworthy that he explains anthropomorphic verses and statements as parables and frequently repeats: "The Torah speaks in the language of men." This tendency is without doubt an aspect of his violent struggle with the Karaites which finds expression in the Midrash in many places. His practical aim is also conspicuous when he deals with certain halakhot whose performance was apparently neglected in his time. Tobias' Midrash was frequently quoted soon after it was written, but until the end of the last century only the Lekah Tov to Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy had been published (first edition, Venice, 1746). It was published in full, Genesis and Exodus by S. Buber (1884), Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy by Meir Katzenellenbogen of Padua (1884) from the Venice edition with corrections; The Song of Songs was published by A. W. Greenup (1909); Ruth by I. Bamberger (1887), Lamentations by J. Nacht (1895), and again by Greenup (1908); Ecclesiastes by G. Finberg (1904); Esther by Buber in the Sifrei de-Aggadata al Megillat Esther (1886).

          
Reference
Description
   EJ
        
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Listing Classification
Period
19th Century:    Checked
  
Location
Germany:    Checked
  
Subject
  
Characteristic
First Editions:    Checked
Language:    German, some Hebrew
  
Manuscript Type
  
Kind of Judaica