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Two independent works printed in Lemberg bound together. The first, Makre Dardaki, is a commentary on Genesis by R. Hillel ben Baruch Lichtenstein, one of the most prominent Orthodox rabbis in Hungary. This volume, printed in Lemberg, is the first of four, volumes two through four having been published in Kolomea.
R. Hillel ben Baruch Lichtenstein (1815–1891) was one of the outstanding pupils of R. Moses Sofer (Hatam Sofer). He first served as rabbi of Margarethen and in 1854 was elected rabbi of Kolozsvar, the capital of Transylvania. After 18 months he was compelled to leave the locality without officially assuming office, owing to his opposition to R. Abraham Friedman, rabbi of Transylvania, and because of the internal frictions in the community which were aggravated as a result. His refusal to go to Gyulafehervar (Alba-Julia), where the district rabbi had his seat, to receive his sanction to take up his post, as was then the custom, served as the formal reason for his departure. Between 1865 and 1867 he was rabbi of Szikszo, also in Hungary. He then moved to Galicia and became rabbi of Kolomyya (Kolomea). R. Lichtenstein was one of the dominant figures of the Orthodox community in their struggle with the reformers both before and after the great schism of 1869. He fought against any suspicion of reform in the life of the Jews, and sharply criticized those Orthodox Jews, including rabbis, who inclined to any kind of innovation in religious practices. He especially attacked those who attempted to preach in German, and even censured R. Azriel Hildesheimer on this account. R. Lichtenstein's pupils also served as uncompromising fighters against religious reforms. At rabbinical conventions in Hungary, called on his initiative, the main principles of extremist Orthodoxy for Hungarian Jewry were laid down. The first convention of this kind assembled in SFtoraljadjhely in 1864 but the main one took place in 1866 in NagymihFly (Michalovce) where resolutions were adopted excommunicating Reform Judaism and any rabbi preaching in German or any other European language. Ten takkanot were also enacted, which to this day serve as the basis of the separation between Orthodox Jews and reformers in Hungary. R. Lichtenstein wrote many books, including Maskil el Dal, 4 parts, sermons (1860–69); Shirei Maskil, on ethics (1877); Avkat Rokhel, responsa, 2 parts (1883–85); and Et La'asot, in Yiddish, on ethics, 2 parts (1878).
The second work is Ta’amei Minhagim by R. Abraham J. Sperling. This is the first edition of this comprehensive and popular work on customs, prayers, and festivals. The contents are based on a material sscattered among numerous other works and now assembled together in this volume. R. Sperling was a shohet and bodek. |
