View Auction Listing - Siddur with extensive notes by R. Jacob Bachrach

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Bidding Information
Lot #		18196
Auction End Date		6/12/2007 11:38:30 AM (mm/dd/yyyy)

Title Information

Title (English)

Siddur with extensive notes by R. Jacob Bachrach

Title (Hebrew)

סידור עם הגהות ה'ר יעקב בכרך

Author

[Ms. - Liturgy - Unpublished]

City

[Koenigsberg]

Publication Date

19th cent.

Collection Information

Independent Item

This listing is an independent item not part of any collection

Description Information

Physical
Description

5-10 pp., 335 ff., 232:155 mm., usual age staining, extensive notes in margins of many pp., bound in contemporary boards, rubbed and taped.

Detailed
Description

Siddur with extensive, unpublished, notes by R. Jacob b. Moses Bachrach (also called Ba'al ha-Ma'amarim or Jacob ha-Bachri; 1824–1896), rabbi and grammarian. Bachrach, a descendant of R. Jair Bacharach, was born in Sejny in the district of Suwalki; 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 Mazref ha-Avodah, which deals with the controversy over Hasidism between Benjamin Wolf of Slonim, a disciple of R. Elijah b. Solomon Zalman the Gaon of Vilna and Joseph of Nemirov, a disciple of R. Levi Isaac of Berdichev. Later editions of this book carry the title Vikkuha Rabbah ("Great Debate"). In 1858 he also published the Sefer Yuhasin of R. Abraham Zacuto with corrections and comments. Between 1861 and 1864 he published R. Jacob b. Asher's Turim with his own annotations. From Koenigsberg he moved to Sevastopol. 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 R. Samuel Mohilever. R. 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 R. 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.

Reference
Description

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