First edition. 281, [3 of 5] ff., octavo, 160:91 mm., usual light age and damp staining, nice margins, wanting charts and 2 of final ff. of errata as usual. A very good copy bound in modern cloth over boards, rubbed.

 

Textbook on mathematics, in Hebrew and Yiddish on facing pages by R. Zerah (Abraham Moses) b. Meir Eidlitz (fl. c. 1720), rabbi and preacher in Prague. An orphan, he was educated in the home of R. Jonathan Eybeschuetz and was one of his outstanding pupils. He was a member of the bet din presided over by R. Ezekiel Landau , and headed a yeshiva for over 30 years. At first wealthy, he supported numerous scholars. Later becoming impoverished, however, he would not accept support; it is related that a sum he had received from the head of the community was found sealed up after his death with instructions to return it. Fourteen of his sermons were printed under the title Or la-Yesharim (1785, reprinted 1942). His novellae on Bezah were published in Jerusalem in 1960, and further manuscripts exist. Eidlitz appreciated the value of secular sciences, considering them necessary for both scholars and layman but inferior to the Torah. He therefore wrote a textbook on mathematics, in Hebrew and Yiddish on facing pages, entitled Melekhet Mahashevet, of which only the first part appeared (Prague, 1785; the Hebrew section was reprinted in Zolkiew (Zholkva), 1837 and 1845, and an abridged Yiddish version in Warsaw, 1837). Some of his responsa were printed in works by his contemporaries. R. Jacob Emden listed Eidlitz among those suspected of Shabbateanism.

 

Hebrew Description

שחברתי אני ... משה זרח איידליץ מפראג. והנני מחלה פני כל מעיין בספ' הזה שלא יבוא שעריו עד שיקרא ההקדמה, שידע מתוכה על מה עשיתי ככה ... ובה ידע דרכי הספר ... לעשות בכל מל'א'כ'ת' מ'ח'שבת ו'ל'הורת נתן בלבו

דף י: חלק ראשון מספר מלאכת מחשבת וקראתיו מלאכת החשבון והוא כולל כל חכמת המספר והתשבורת ... עברית ויידיש (באותיות צו"ר) בעמודים מקבילים, עם הקדמה בעברית וביידיש. המחבר כותב בהקדמה שהדפיס את הספר קונטרסים-קונטרסים, בכל פעם קונטרס אחד בן ח דפים, ואחרי שנמכר הדפיס קונטרס נוסף. [5] דף בסוף: "התנצלות" המחבר (2 דפים), "מפתח" (דף אחד) ו"לוח הטעות" (שני דפים). שני הדפים המקופלים (טבלאות) חסרים ברוב הטפסים.