Physical Description

First edition. [3], 39, [1] pp., 164:103 mm., nice margins, light age staining. A very good copy bound in contemporary boards, rubbed.

Detail Description

Explanations of several aggadot of the Talmud by Samuel Nehemiah Libowitz (1862–1939), writer on Jewish subjects. Born in Kolno, Poland, he emigrated to America in 1881. He traded in precious stones and was so successful that he could afford to print over twenty books in limited editions. He corresponded with eminent Jewish scholars including Israel Davidson, to whom he wrote 107 letters, which he later published himself in 1933. His works include: Peni'el (1914), a collection from Jewish literature on the subject of death; Ha-Mavet be-Fanim Sohakot (1917); Sefer Sha'ashu'im (1927); and Ha-Shome'a Yizhak (1907), sharp-witted jokes and original interpretations of the rabbis and from the Middle Ages; Judah Aryeh Modena bi-Demuto ve-Zivyono (1896); Kitvei ha-Rav Yehudah Aryeh mi-Modena (1936); and Doresh Reshumot ha-Aggadah (1893, 1920, 1929), explanations of several aggadot of the Talmud. He also edited and published Ozar ha-Hokhmah ve-ha-Madda (1897), in collaboration with Jacob Reifmann, Moses Reicherson, Solomon Rabin, and others. In several of his works he violently polemized against such scholars as R. Isaac Hirsch Weiss, Ze'ev Schorr, Radkinson, Saul Tchernichowsky, and Joseph Klausner. He emigrated to Palestine in 1927, but his longing for his children took him back to America.

Hebrew Description