Milhamot Yavez. A defense of R. Ya’akov Emden’s attribution of Hemdat Yamim to the Sabbatean Nathan of Gaza by R. Mordecai Luria.

Hemdat Yamim, an anonymous Kabbalistic work comprised of homiletics and ethics, was printed eight times, from 1731/32, within thirty five years until R. Ya’akov Emden identified it as a heretical Sabbatean work. It was his opinion that the author was Nathan of Gaza (1643/44-80), known as the he Prophet of Gaza and an ecstatic follower of Shabbatei Zevi. This attribution has been the subject of some controversy. Among those who challenged Nathan’s authorship of Hemdat Yamim was R. Menahem Heilperin in Kevod Hakhamim (Jerusalem, 1896), who also argued that Hemdat Yamim was not even a Sabbatean work. R. Mordecai Luria first responded, defending Emden’s position, in a pamphlet entitled Emet le-Ya’akov (Jerusalem, 1903). Heilperin then reprinted Kevod Hakhamim in c. 1914. Luria marshaled his arguments in this new pamphlet entitled Milhamot Yavez.

Aneh Casil “Answer a fool [according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes]” (Proverbs 26:5) Rare pamphlet by Hirschensohn responding strongly to attacks upon him and his works.

Aneh Casil is a strong response by R. Hayyim ben Jacob Hirschenson (1857-1935) to attacks upon him and his works by an unnamed individual. It is clear from the text that Hirschenson was deeply offended by his unnamed assailant’s comments. Hirschenson was born in Safed. In 1864 he went with his father to Jerusalem. In addition to studying Torah, he applied himself to secular studies, and as a result he was persecuted by zealots. He worked for Zionism, supported Eliezer Ben-Yehuda in his effort to revive spoken Hebrew and was one of the founders of the Safah Berurah (Plain Language) society in Jerusalem. From 1885 to 1889 he edited and published a monthly for Jewish scholarship entitled Ha-Misderonah. In 1892/93 he published in Jerusalem -together with his wife Eve and his brother Isaac - a Yiddish paper, Beit Ya’akov, as a supplement to the Ha-Zevi of Ben-Yehuda. In 1904 he went to the U.S., where he was appointed rabbi of the four communities of Hoboken, New Jersey, and died there. Hayyim wrote many books on Jewish subjects, including: Ateret Hakhamim (1874), on the relationship between the views of scientists and those of the talmudic aggadists; Yamim mi-Kedem (1908), on biblical chronology; Malki ba-Kodesh (6 parts, 1919–28), on the laws which should govern a Jewish state according to the Torah. He was the father of Tamar, wife of David de Sola Pool, and Tehilla Lichtenstein head of the Jewish Science movement.

ענה כסיל מענה ... על חרוף שלא כהוגן ... מאת הרב חיים הירשענזאהן, רב דהובאקען ומערבה, יוניאן הילל והסביבה. תשובה "על כתב הפלסתר ... 'בקורת על ספר ימים מקדם' ... אשר נדפס ... שנת תרע"ב ... ואשר ... אינני חפץ להזכיר את שמו" של המחבר (עמ' 5). על ספר "ימים מקדם" עיין למעלה. כולל גם מכתבי-עידוד שקיבל המחבר מרבנים שונים.