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Two works, published and bound together, by the Hebrew scholar, printer, and publisher R. Zevi Hirsch ben Mordecai Edelman. The first title, Alim le-Mivhan, is an explanation of obscure aggadot in midrashim and the Talmud. It is, “For Torah and for testimony” (Isaiah 8:20) on those places that are closed and sealed, by way of illustration or conundrum, not understood by most, here made clear. The second title, Sefer Iggeret ha-Purim, on Esther, is on the Megillah and the tractate, and includes at the end several pages of verse for Purim.
R. Zevi Hirsch ben Mordecai Edelmann, (1805–1858), Hebrew scholar, printer, and publisher. Edelmann, who was born in Svisloch, Belorussia, published books at Danzig, Koenigsberg, and London. In England, in particular, he carefully searched the libraries for Hebrew manuscript material. Edelmann’s other published works, in addition to these titles, include hitherto unpublished medieval Hebrew literature such as Estori Ha-Parhi Kaftor va-Ferah (1851, repr. 1959); Ginzei Oxford (translated into English by M. H. Bresslau and published in Treasures of Oxford, 1851), a collection (with L. Dukes) of liturgical and secular poetry by Spanish-Jewish poets; Derekh Tovim (also translated into English by M. H. Bresslau and published in Path of Good Men, 1852), varia by Maimonides, Judah ibn Tibbon and others; Hemdah Genuzah (1856), an important collection of philosophical writings and letters, mainly by, to, or about Maimonides; Divrei Hefez (1853), another collection of philosophical and poetical material; and also M. H. Luzzatto's La-Yesharim Tehillah (1854). Edelmann also published a number of important liturgical items: Seder Haggadah (1845), with critical notes; Haggadah Le-Leil Shimmurim (1845), with commentaries and notes; and Siddur Hegyon Lev (1854) containing Edelmann's critical notes and emendations, No'am Megadim by J. Teomim, and Mekor Berakhah by E. Landshuth. Edelmann's first publications, which were purely talmudic, were: Haggahot u-Vi'urim li-Me'irat Einayim (1839). He also wrote an historical study on Saul Wahl, the alleged one-day king of Poland, Gedullat Sha'ul (1854), with an appendix Nir David. His considerable publishing ventures were carried out under conditions of great financial stringency. Edelmann lived in Berlin from 1852 and died in the ward for the insane in a Berlin hospital. |
