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Commentry on the aggadah by parshiot by Mordecai Gumpel ben Judah Leib Schnaber (Levisohn). The title page describes the contents as being on the Torah, Prophets, and Talmud by the late Mordecai Gumpel ben Judah Leib Schnaber, son of the kabbalist R. Mordecai Gumpel Schnaber, dayyan in Altona. The title, Soles Minhah Belulah, is from, “fine flour for a meal offering (soles minhah belulah)” (Leviticus 14:10, Numbers 28:9, 12, 13). There is an introduction from Schnaber, headed by a woodcut, in which he relates that the contents are based on what he heard from his father when only seven and eight. Next is the text in a single column in square letters. Another woodcut is between the section on the Bible and the beginning of Berakhot.
Mordecai Gumpel ben Judah Leib Schnaber (d. 1797), who published under the name Marcus George Levisohn, was a German surgeon; He evinced an early aptitude for study, and attended the school of R. David Fränkel, chief rabbi of Berlin. Levisohn chose the medical profession, to which he devoted himself with enthusiasm. He left Germany for England, and, after studying under John Hunter, was appointed physician at the hospital of the Duke of Portland. Being called to Sweden by Gustavus III., he occupied for some time the position of professor at the University of Upsala. Gustavus thought highly of him, and he translated, at the king's command, from English into Swedish his medical and polemical works. Levisohn left the court in 1781 and returned to Germany, where he published German translations of most of his English medical works. Three years later (1784) he went to Hamburg, and, being well received, settled there and followed his profession with remarkable success.
The large number of his daily patients did not prevent him from prosecuting with zeal his medical, philosophical, and theological studies. In 1785-86 he published two medical journals, and during the following years labored at his great work on religious philosophy. He was then engaged for five years in physical researches. His works are: "Ma'amar ha-Torah ve-Hokmah" (London, 1771), a philosophical treatise (this work caused its author to be regarded in the light of a dangerous innovator; An Essay on the Blood (ib. 1776); Epidemical Sore Throat" (ib. 1778); "Beschreibung der Londonischen Medicinischen Praxis den Deutschen Aerzten Vorgelegt . . . mit einer Vorrede von T. C. A. Theden" (Berlin, 1782); "The Passions and Habits of Man, and Their Influence on Health" (Brunswick, 1797-1801); "Derek ha-Kodesh ha-Hadashah," a Hebrew grammar. Schnaber (Levisohn) also wrote Tochachath Megula (Hamburg, 1784) a commentary on Kohelet in opposition to Moses Mendelsohn’s commentery, Yesod ha-Torah (Hamburg, 1797), a philosophical work. |
