16:01:35


[Login]   
[Book List]  
 
Bidding Information
Lot #    24431
Auction End Date    8/11/2009 11:25:00 AM (mm/dd/yyyy)
          
Title Information
Title (English)    Iggrot Bekorot
Title (Hebrew)    אגרת בקורת
Author    [Eunuch] R. Jacob Emden
City    Zhitomir
Publisher    Abraham Shalom Shadov
Publication Date    1867
          
Collection Information
Independent Item    This listing is an independent item not part of any collection
          
Description Information
Physical
Description		    [4], 76 pp., 215:160 mm., wide margins, light age staining, stamps. A very good copy bound in contemporary boards, split.
          
Detailed
Description		    Responsa on the laws of eunuch. R. Jacob Emden (pen name Yavez; derived from Ya'akov Ben Zevi; 1697–1776), rabbi, halakhic authority, kabbalist, and anti-Shabbatean polemicist. Yavez was regarded as one of the outstanding scholars of his generation. Yavez's teacher was his father R. Zevi Hirsch Ashkenazi (Hakham Zevi). He inherited his father's interest in secular studies, his dissociation from the Ashkenazi method of study (pilpul) and customs, his stormy, independent, and uncompromising character, and his devotion to the campaign against the Shabbateans and their sympathizers. In addition, he possessed a fine literary talent, a critical tendency and a knowledge unusual for his age of general non-halakhic Jewish literature. He was also familiar with sciences and languages (German, Dutch, Latin). Despite his distinguished descent and his remarkable talmudic attainments, R. Emden occupied no official position, with the exception of a few years as rabbi of Emden (1728–1733). This made it possible for him to be exceptionally critical toward the society and the tradition of his time. He was more on guard about anything that he considered hillul ha-Shem (bringing the name of the Jew into disrepute) than for the good name of the rabbinate and of the community. He made extensive use of the private printing press he founded in Altona to disseminate his views. As a result, because of his views on a number of issues, both personal and communal, he became a figure of contention. His important halakhic works are: Lehem Shamayim, on the Mishnah (pt. 1, 1728; pt. 2, 1768); a letter of criticism against R. Ezekiel Katzenellenbogen, rabbi of Altona (1736); responsa, She'elat Yavez (2 pts. 1738–59), Mor u-Kezi'ah, on the Shulhan Arukh, OH, (2 pts., 1761–68). In addition, he published an important edition of the prayer book (whose parts had different names) with a valuable commentary (1745–48). This prayer book was reprinted several times. His main historical importance lies in his campaigns against the Shabbateans to which he dedicated many years. He relentlessly examined and investigated every suspicious phenomenon pertaining to the sect. He called upon the contemporary rabbis to publish excommunications and mercilessly attacked anyone suspected of supporting or showing sympathy to the Shabbateans. The Shabbateans were accustomed to introduce hints of their secret doctrine into their literary works, particularly in the field of Kabbalah. Consequently, R. Emden became an expert in uncovering such allusions and hidden meanings, and developed an extraordinarily sharp critical faculty by which he could recognize any suggestion of the Shabbatean heresy. Many books in which no one saw anything to which objection could be taken, were condemned by him as heretical. Though at times he was at fault and suspected the innocent without cause, his judgment in general was sound.
          
Paragraph 2    ... חברו... רבינו יעקב עמדין בן ... חכם צבי ... והוצאתיו שנית[!] לאור ... מיכאל בן אלכסנדר פרומקין...

נוסף שער שני: ספר אגרת בקורת ... בקורת לתשובת חסיד גדול א' אשר לכבודו העלים הגאון שמו אשר השיג את מורו הרב. והמורה נתנם לביקורת לפני הגאון יעב"ץ ... עמ' [4]: דברי הרב המוציא לאור.

          
Reference
Description		    CD-EPI 0155846; M. A. Wagenaar, Toledot Yavez (1868); Y. Raphael, in Aresheth, 3 (1961), 231–76; EJ
        
Associated Images
2 Images (Click thumbnail to view full size image):
  Order   Image   Caption
  1   Click to view full size  
  
  2   Click to view full size  
  
  
Listing Classification
Period
19th Century:    Checked
  
Location
Russia-Poland:    Checked
  
Subject
Responsa:    Checked
  
Characteristic
Language:    Hebrew
  
Manuscript Type
  
Kind of Judaica