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Concerning the dispute between two great sages over the nusach ha-Ari and the customs and ways of hassidut. One is R. Benjamin Zev of Slonim, a Talmud of the gaon of Vilna, the second was the pious well known Hasidic leader, R. Joseph of Nemirov, Talmud of R. Levi Isaac of Berdichev. The title page gives the place of printing as Pressburg but it was printed in Warsaw. Vikkuha Rabbah is in two parts, each with its own identical title page. The author, not named on the title pages, was R. Jacob Ben Moses Bachrach (Ba'al ha-Ma'amarim or Jacob ha-Bachri, 1824–1896). He first published Vikkuha Rabbah on the controversy over Hasidism between these two leading rabbis as Mazref ha-Avodah. Later editions were entitled Vikkuha Rabbah (Great Debate). The dispute occurred in the year מתוק (1786). It is basically an exchange of letters between the proponents of the two camps. Dubnow suggests that the book was actually written later by a Habad Hasid. This is because a letter from R. Benjamin Zev refers to the Rav Shulhan Arukh, not printed until 1826.
The author, not named on the title pages, was R. Jacob Ben Moses Bachrach (Ba'al ha-Ma'amarim or Jacob ha-Bachri, 1824–1896), a rabbi and grammarian. He was a descendant of R. Jair Bacharach and he studied with his grandfather R. Judah Bachrach. In addition to being an accomplished talmudist he was versed in secular knowledge. For many years he was superintendent of the Hebrew department of a printing establishment in Koenigsberg. In 1858 he published in that press his In 1858 he also published the Sefer Yuhasin of Abraham Zacuto with corrections and comments. Between 1861 and 1864 he published Jacob b. Asher's Turim with his own annotations. From Koenigsberg he moved to Sebastopol. There, while managing a refinery, he began to take an interest in the literature of the Karaites and engage in polemics with them. In 1893 his book Me-ha-Ibbur u-Minyan ha-Shanim ("Concerning Intercalation and the Calendar") appeared in Warsaw. In it he attempted to prove the antiquity of the Hebrew calendar, in opposition to the Karaite theory on one side and to the opinion of H.Z. Slonimsky on the other side. From there he moved to Bialystok, where he played an important role in founding the Hovevei Zion movement and was sent to Erez Israel in 1882. His findings during his visit there are contained in his Sefer ha-Massa le-Erez Yisrael (Warsaw, 1884), one of the earliest propaganda books of the Hovevei Zion. For a short time, he was also private secretary to Samuel Mohilever. Bachrach also engaged in scientific study of the Hebrew language. Among other things, he tried to prove the antiquity of the Hebrew vowels and accents, in opposition to the opinion of Elijah Levita who had held that these were not introduced until after the conclusion of the Talmud. These studies appeared in Sefer ha-Yahas li-Khetav Ashuri ve-Toledot ha-Nekuddot ve-ha-Te'amim ("History of the Assyrian Script, Vowels, and Accents," Warsaw, 1854) and Hishtaddelut im Shadal ("Engagement with Samuel David Luzzatto," Warsaw, 1897), a kind of extension to his earlier work. Despite the great acumen shown in his works, they did not meet with the general approval of the scholars of his time.
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