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First edition of the first part of the discourses of R. Moses Avigdor ben Jacob Joseph Amiel, rabbi of av bet din of Antwerp and later chief rabbi of Tel Aviv. The title page describes it as being discourses “in due season” (Proverbs 15:23) for all the cycles of the year and festivals. This is part one, Heshbon ha-Nefesh for the Yamim Nora’im. Additional volumes were published in 1926 and 1929. The verso of the title page has a French title page, there are two dedicatory pages, the first to R. Moses Levi Noibiasky and to Devorah Gittel, R. Amiel’s in-laws. The second dedicatory page is to R. Mordecai ben Moses ha-Levi Pressel and his wife Liba bat Israel Birnbaum who financed publication. There is a word to the reader from R. Amiel and then the discourses, set in a single column in square letters. At the end is a detailed table of contents. Derashot el-Ammi is comprised of thirty-eight varied discourses, all relevant to the stated subject matter.
R. Moses Avigdor Amiel (1883–1946) was a rabbi, religious thinker, and author. R. Amiel studied under his father and at the Telz yeshivah. From there he proceeded to Vilna where he studied under R. Hayyim Soloveichik and R. Hayyim Ozzer Grodzinski. At the age of 22 Amiel became rabbi of Swieciany, and in 1913, rabbi of Grajewo. One of the first rabbis to join the Mizrachi movement, he began publishing articles, noted for their lucid literary style, on communal and national questions and presenting his outlook on Judaism and the ideology of religious Zionism. In 1920 Amiel was elected rabbi of Antwerp, where his initial public appearance at the Mizrachi convention immediately established him as one of the chief ideologists of religious Zionism. In Antwerp Amiel created a wide network of educational and communal institutions from Jewish day schools to a yeshivah, where he lectured. In 1936 Amiel was elected chief rabbi of Tel Aviv where he found further scope for his varied activities. He established the modern high school yeshivah "Ha-Yishuv he-Hadash," now named after him. The school combined talmudic and secular studies and was the first of its kind in Erez Israel. Amiel's first halakhic publication was Darkhei Moshe followed by his three-volume Ha Middot le-Heker ha-Halakhah. A renowned preacher, he published the homiletical works Derashot el Ammi and Hegyonot el Ammi. Amiel was a regular contributor to the religious press. |
