Expose of the purported Jerusalem Talmud, here on Hullin and Bekhorot, published by Solomon Judah Friedlaender. The title page states that it is an investigation and inquiry into the new work purporting to be the Jerusalem Talmud on Hullin and Bekhorot. Sha’alu Shelom Yerushalayim is an important refutation of Friedlaender’s claims, initially accepted by many leading authorities, of having found a manuscript of the Jerusalem Talmud on Seder Kodashim. The pagination of the first pages in both sections are in error and the volume is complete.

R. Meir Dan Plotzki of Ostrova (1867–1928), studied under R. Israel Joshua of Kutno, R. Hayyim Eleazar Wax of Piotrkow, and R. Abraham of Sochaczew. In 1891, he was elected rabbi of Warta. The publication of the first part of his Hemdat Yisrael partly on Maimonides’ Sefer ha-Mitzvot in 1903 made him famous throughout Poland, and in 1908 he was appointed rabbi of the large town of Ostrow. In 1926 he resigned from the rabbinate and was appointed rosh yeshivah of the Metivta of Gur in Warsaw. Plotzki visited Erez Israel and instituted many improvements in the administration of the Polish kolel. One of the leaders of Agudat Israel, he spent a year as its emissary in Belgium, England, and the United States. He was chairman of the executive committee of the Agudat ha-Rabbanim in Poland. he also wrote Keli Hemdah, a commentary on the Pentateuch, in six parts (1906–38); and Nizozei Or, novellae on the Or ha-Hayyim by R. Hayyim ben Attar. Many of his other works have remained in manuscript.

Solomon Judah Friedlaender (c. 1860–c. 1923) was an author and literary forger. He gave contradictory biographical accounts of his life, and supposedly studied at the yeshivah in Volozhin and afterward wandered throughout Europe. Friedlaender published a number of works of doubtful authenticity or pure forgeries. Friedlaender's most important forgery is his pretended Seder Kodashim of the Jerusalem Talmud. Friedlaender proclaimed his fortunate discovery of an ancient Spanish manuscript, dated Barcelona 1212, which contained this long lost and most important talmudic text. He published Zevahim and Arakhin in 1907, and Hullin and Bekhorot in 1909, with his commentary Heshek Shelomo. Friedlaender claimed to be of pure Sephardi descent from the well-known Algazi family and a native of Smyrna. Some of the leading scholars of this period, such as Solomon Buber, Solomon Shechter, and Shalom Mordecai Schwadron of Brzezany accepted his story. However, many scholars, among them R. Plotzki gave no credence to his tales, and wrote proving the fallaciousness of Friedlaender’s claims.