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Only edition of this compilation of Talmudic and midrashic sayings by R. Judah Seni de Cologna (16th Century), edited and annotated by R. Isaac Hirschensohn. There is a brief preface from the noted scholar R. Abraham Berliner, an apologia from the printer Isaac ben R. Jacob Mordecai, followed by the text, set in two columns in square letters. Yehudah Ya’aleh is in two parts, the first an alphabetic collection of the sayings in the Talmud, the second sayings from the Midrash Rabbah, all selected and arranged by R. Seni. The text was edited and has annotations by R. Isaac Hirschensohn. At the end of the book is an abbreviated listing of the entries in Yehudah Ya’aleh.
The editor, R. Isaac Hirschensohn (1845–1896) was the scion of a family of rabbis who were among the first in the revival of settlement in Erez Israel in the 19th century. His father was R. Jacob Mordecai Hirschensohn (1821–1888), rabbi and yeshivah administrator, was born in Pinsk. He studied in the yeshivot of Lithuania and Belorussia and served as rabbi in several communities there before emigrating to Erez Israel in 1848. He settled first in Safed, but moved to Jerusalem in 1864, remaining there for the rest of his life. In both cities he administered yeshivot. He was connected with the Yishuv Erez Israel movement founded by R. Zevi Kalischer and R. Elijah Gutmacher. His eldest son, R. Isaac Hirschensohn was a rabbi and scholar. Born in Pinsk, in his youth he was educated in Safed and as a young man studied in various yeshivot in Europe. He settled in Jerusalem and on his father's death succeeded him in yeshivah administration in that city. He contributed to the Ha-Zevi of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and signed his name as its responsible editor. He was persecuted by zealots who accused him of heretical views. Isaac pursued research into variae lectiones of the Talmud on the basis of old manuscripts and published articles on talmudic themes. He also published various works from manuscripts, including the novellae of R. Nissim Gerondi to the tractate Megillah (1884). He moved to London where in 1896 he published Tehiyyat Yisrael, a religious Zionist weekly, and there he died. |
