19:21:08


[Login]   
[Book List]  
 
Bidding Information
Lot #    6164
Auction End Date    12/16/2003 10:44:00 AM (mm/dd/yyyy)
          
Title Information
Title (English)    Hiddushei Halakhot MaHaRShA
Title (Hebrew)    חידושי הלכות מהרש'א
Author    [Unrecorded Cooperplate Engraving]
City    Vienna
Publisher    Georg Holzinger
Publication Date    1814
          
Collection Information
Independent Item    This listing is an independent item not part of any collection
          
Description Information
Physical
Description		    Frontpiece, [2], 128; 130 ff., folio, 387:243 mm., clean wide margins, light browning. A near fine copy bound in the original full leather boards, rubbed on edges.
          
Paragraph 1    A beautiful full page cooper plate engraving of a talmudical scholar writing in his library.
          
Detailed
Description		    One of the classical works of talmudic literature, included in almost every edition of the Talmud, MaHaRShA explains the talmudic text with profundity and ingenuity. In his introduction to the work he writes that “out of love for terseness” he would refrain from elaboration. He ends most of his comments with the phrases: “And weigh carefully” or “And the meaning is simple” although in reality it is far from clear and many later scholars often found difficulty in understanding his point. Often he poses a difficulty and says: “And this may be solved,” leaving it to the students to find the answer. He attempts to explain the difficult talmudic aggadot in a rational manner, sometimes taking them as parables with interpretations which are at variance with their literal meaning. The work gained such wide currency that an understanding of MaHaRShA's comments came to be regarded for many generations as one of the qualifications of the average talmudic scholar.

R. Samuel Eliezer b. Judah ha-Levi Edels (known as MaHaRShA—Morenu Ha-Rav Shemu'el Adels; 1555–1631), one of the foremost Talmud commentators. Born in Cracow, he moved to Posen in his youth, where he married the daughter of R. Moses Ashkenazi Heilpern. His mother-in-law, Edel, by whose name he was later known, was a wealthy woman and supported him and his numerous disciples for a period of 20 years (1585–1605). After her death, MaHaRShA took up a rabbinic position in Chelm. In 1614 he was appointed rabbi of Lublin, and in 1625 of Ostrog, where he founded a large yeshivah. In 1590 he participated at a session of the Council of the Four Lands which pronounced a ban on those who purchase rabbinic office. MaHaRShA was held in high esteem by the scholars of his day. R. Joel Sirkes in his address to the leaders of the Council of the Four Lands in Lublin, said: “You have in your midst the greatest man of the present generation . . . with whom to consult and deliberate.” His other works are: Zikhron Devarim, novellae of the group of scholars at Posen (published by his mother-in-law in 1598); a penitential prayer beginning with the words: “El Elohai Dalfah Einai”; and a penitential prayer written in memory of the Warsaw martyrs (1597).

          
Paragraph 2    ... ונלוה אליהם הגהות הגאונים, מגדולי ארץ ... מו"ה שמואל קאידנובר ... והרב ... בעל חכם צבי [אשכנזי], והרב ... מו"ה לוי קאדני ... והרב ... מו"ה אלי' ווילנא [מלוקסים מספריהם] ... נדפס בהגהה מדויקת מאוד ע"פי דפוס אמשטרדם [תקט"ו] ... חלק א-ב.

חלק א: (מסכת ברכות - סוטה). [2], קכח דף. דף [2,ב]: דברי-הקדמה מאת "העומד על משמרת במלאכת הקודש אהרן פאללאק". כותב בין השאר: המהרש"א ... לא נדפס עד עתה בהגהה מדויקת ... ולקחתי לפני חמשה ספרי מהרש"א אשר כל אחד מהם נדפס במקום אחר, למען הצרף לי את הטוב, וראיתי ... כי כולם מלאים טעיות, ובמהרש"א אשר נדפס בברין [תקנ"ו] מצאתי בעלה אחת כששים שגיאות ... הוספתי להעמיד במקומות הראויות הגהות הגאונים ... היושבים על ההגהה ... כ"ה מיכאל נאדאש ... כ"ה משה שווארצפעלד ... ואני באתי אחריהם לברר וללבן ולהגיה ... חלק ב: (מסכת גטין - נדה). קל דף.

          
Reference
Description		    CD-EPI 0170859; EJ; JE; Dubnow, History of the Jews in Russia and Poland, 1 (1916), 129–30
        
Associated Images
No images are associated with this listing
  
Listing Classification
Period
19th Century:    Checked
  
Location
Other:    Austria
  
Subject
Novellae:    Checked
  
Characteristic
Bindings:    Checked
Language:    Hebrew
  
Manuscript Type
  
Kind of Judaica
Art:    Checked
Drawings:    Checked