Shaʻare Binyamin
Poland - Jewish Publishing
Dictionaries - Hebrew
Strashun Library
Shaʻare Binyamin (Gates of Benjamin). Binyamin Zeʼev ben David. Żółkiew: Bi-defus Gershon ben Hayim David Segal, David ben Menahem Man ve-Hayim David ben Aharon Segal, ca. 1752.
Żółkiew was one of the three major centers of Hebrew printing in Poland. (The others were Krakow and Lublin). The first Hebrew printing house was established in Żółkiew in 1692 by a printer from Amsterdam, Uri ben Aharon Fayvesh (1625–1715). Most of the books published in Żółkiew by the Fayvesh family and associated printing branches continued proudly using “Amsterdam” fonts on their title pages. Shaʻare Binyamin, the alphabetically arranged dictionary to the Bible, Talmud, Midrash and the Kabbalistic works was compiled by R. Binyamin Zeʼev ben David who lived in the 18th century.
Binyamin Zeʼev ben David
YIVO Library
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
1752
Hebrew
Book
YIVO Library Rabbinic Collection (וו/19א־ ש81)
Shirim Ahadim
Poetry, Hebrew
Karaites
Strashun Library
Shirim Ahadim (A Few Poems). Casas, Elijah. Leipzig: K. B. Lork, 1857.
Born in Armyansk, Crimea, Elijah ben Elia Kasas (1832–1912) was a Karaite scholar and director of a Karaite cantorial school in Eupatoria. One of the few Karaite contributors to secular Hebrew literature, Kasas published numerous poems in maskilic periodicals. However, he later tried to sever all connection between the Karaites and the mainstream of Jewry. He asserted that the Karaites were not Semites, but a Tatar or Khazar tribe which had become converted to the Jewish faith. His works include a Hebrew textbook, Le-Regel ha-Yeladim (1869), intended for the Karaite youth speaking the Tatar language, among others. He also translated the Karaite prayer book entitled Ketoret Tamid into Russian (1905).
The book contains original poems by Elijah Casas, as well as his Hebrew translations of Russian, German and French poems by other authors.
Casas, Elijah
YIVO Library
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
1857
Hebrew
Book
YIVO Library Rabbinic Collection (וו/25־ ש 48)
Omek Halakhah
Rabbinical Works
Strashun Library
Omek Halakhah (The Depths of Halakhah). Koppelman, Jacob ben Samuel Bunim, 1555-1594.Amsterdam: Tsevi Hirsh b. ha-r. R. Gershon, ca. 1709.
This profusely illustrated work by Rabbi Jacob ben Samuel Bunim Koppelman examines a number of different Talmudic tractates and is based on the commentaries of Rashi, Tosafot, Rambam, among others. The text, which is arranged in a manner allowing easy navigation, appears in a single column in rabbinic type. Illustrations appear on nearly every page and clarify complex issues in the relevant tractates. Koppelman draws on contemporary mathematics, botany, engineering, and geography in order to help explicate difficult issues.
Born in Brisk, Poland, Jacob ben Samuel Bunim Koppelman was a well-known Talmudic scholar and translator who also studied mathematics and science. He also authored the book Ohel Ya’akov (Freiburg, 1584).
Koppelman, Jacob ben Samuel Bunim
YIVO Library
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
1709
Hebrew
Book
Amsterdam 1710
Perushim le-Rashi (Sefer Kanizal.)
Rabbinical Commentaries
Jews -- Spain
Strashun Library
Perushim le-Rashi (Sefer Kanizal.) Supercommentaries to Rashi’s Commentary on the Pentateuch by Shemuel Almosnino, Ya’akov Kanizal, Aharon Abulrabi, Moshe Albelda et al. Istanbul (Constantinople), ca. 1525.
This extremely rare work consists primarily of four supercommentaries on Rashi's Torah commentary by Aharon Abulrabi (Abu al Rabi), Shmuel Almosnino, Ya’akov Kanizal, and Moshe Albelda, as well as brief passages by several other commentators. Abulrabi (c.1376- c.1430) was a Sicilian of Spanish origin, whose commentaries reveal a facility in grammar, astronomy, philosophy, and mysticism. Almosnino (d. 1551) served as a rabbi in Salonika during the sixteenth century. Less is known of Abelda (d. 1549), who is often confused with his similarly named, more prominent grandson. Lastly, Canizal served as the head of the Talmudic Academy in Avila de Campos in Northwestern Spain at the time of the expulsion, but remains best known for the commentary printed here.
Almosnino, Shemuel
Kanizal, Ya'akov
Abulrabi, Aharon
YIVO Library
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
1525
Hebrew
Book
Istanbul 1525
Mateh Dan: ha-Kuzari ha-Sheni
Judaism and Science
Rabbinical works
Jews -- England
Strashun Library
Mateh Dan: ha-Kuzari ha-Sheni. Nieto, David. London; Thomas Ilive, c. 1714.
Rabbi of the Bevis Marks Synagogue and one of the major intellectual forces in 18th-century Jewish life in London, David Nieto (born in Venice in 1654, died in London in 1728) published this defense of Jewish law based in part on contemporary science. Relying on rabbinic sources, Nieto argues that science and Judaism complement one another and shows that rabbis have consistently used the sciences to bolster their arguments regarding Jewish law.
The top of the title page has the figure of R. Yehuda Hanassi, the compiler of the Mishnah, holding a volume of the Mishnah. To the right it is written “For the knowledge of the generations of the children of Israel,” and to the left, “So they will hold the Torah of the Lord.” This same volume appeared in a Spanish and in a bilingual Spanish-Hebrew edition.
Nieto, David
YIVO Library
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
1714
Hebrew
Book
London 1714
Sefer ha-Noten Imre Shefer
Rabbinical works
Strashun Library
Sefer ha-Noten Imre Shefer:Derashot ‘al ha-Torah. Elijah ben Hayyim, 1530?-1610? Frankfurt am Main: Johann Kellner, c. 1713.
Rabbi Elijah ibn Hayyim was known as Maharanah or Morenu ha-Rav ibn Hayyim. He was born in Adrianople and in about 1575 was appointed chief rabbi of Constantinople.
Elijah ben Hayyim
YIVO Library
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
1713
Hebrew
Book
Frankfurt am Main 1713
Sefer mishpate shevuot
Rabbinical works
Strashun Library
Sefer Mishpete Shevuʻot (The Laws of Shavuoth). Hai ben Sherira. Hamburg: Moshe von Segal, ca. 1782.
This volume was written by Rabbi Hai ben Sherira (939-1038), who was also known as Hai Gaon, a sage best known for having served as the head of the Talmudic Academy in Pumbedita during the 11th century. In addition to writing extensively on Talmudic matters, Hai Gaon was the recipient of numerous religious queries from all over the Jewish world and authored numerous responsa dealing with a wide variety of legal topics. Originally published in Arabic as Kitab al-Ayman, this book deals with oaths relating to business dealings and was subsequently translated into Hebrew and printed in Venice (1602) and in Altona (1782). Includes many handwritten notes by former owners which include variants from other manuscripts.
Hai ben Sherira
YIVO Library
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
1782
Hebrew
Book
YIVO Library Rabbinic Collection (וו/11ב- מ 81)
Shomer Emunim
Kabbalah
Strashun Library
Sefer Shomer Emunim (Keeper of the Faithful). Ergas, Joseph ben Emanuel, 1685-1730. Amsterdam: ʻImanuʾel ve-Avraham Irgas, ca. 1736.
Joseph ben Emanuel Ergas was a prominent rabbi and kabbalist of possibly Marrano descent from Livorno, Italy. His books on kabbalistic matters were praised for their distinctive clear writing style and logic, and they greatly influenced later generations of Kabbala and Chassidic scholars. His opus Shomer emunim is written in the form of dialogue between two scholars, while explaining the foundations of kabbalistic doctrine.
Ergas, Joseph ben Emanuel
YIVO Library
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
1736
Hebrew
Book
Amsterdam 1736
Sod Yesharim
Strashun Library
Rabbinical works
Sod Yesharim. Modena, Leone, 1571-1648. Venice: Danielle Zanetti, c. 1599.
100 remedies and amulets and 50 riddles by Italian scholar, rabbi, and poet Leone Modena, a rationalist who opposed mysticism and kabbalism.
Modena, Leone,
YIVO Library
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
1599
Hebrew
Book
Venice 1599
Kehunat Abraham
Strashun Library
Italy -- Jewish Publishing
Poetry, Hebrew
Kehunat Abraham (Abraham's Priesthood), Abraham ben Shabbetai Cohen of Zante, Venice, 1719.
Poems, based on the Hebrew Psalms, written by Abraham ben Shabbetai, born in 1670 in Crete, when the island was ruled by Venice. Like many fellow Jews, he studied medicine at the University of Padua. As a Renaissance man, he was not only a physician, but also an artist, poet and philosopher. His portrait on the title page, as well as the engraving illustrating the 5th day of the Creation, are believed to have been made by him.
Cohen, Abraham ben Shabbetai
YIVO Library
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
1719
Hebrew
Book
Venice 1719
Shefa‘ tal
Kabbalah
Hebrew publishing -- Poland
Shefa‘ tal (Abundance of dew; also means priestly hand blessing), by Shabetai Sheftel ben Akiva Horowitz, Bilzorka, 1807. This kabbalistic work was issued by one of the many small presses that emerged in the Russian Empire in the late eighteenth century and is printed on the type of cheap, blue-tinted paper often used by indigent printers. The stamp at center, right, indicates that the book at one time belonged to the library of Yisroel Halevi Kitover, rabbi of Felsztyn (now Skelivka, Ukr.). (Bottom) Russian censor's stamp. (Top) Inscription by another owner of the book, "Moyshe of the village of Holvits" (Golevichi?, Bel.).
Horowitz, Shabetai Sheftel ben Akiva
YIVO Library
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
1807
Hebrew
Book
Bialozorka 1807
Sefer Arbaah ve-esrim
Strashun Library
Bibles
Rabbinical Literature
Italy--Jewish Publishing
Sefer Arbaah ve-esrim [Four and Twenty] by Rabbi Jedidiah Solomon Raphael ben Abraham Nortzi. Mantua, First edition.
One-volume Five Books of Moses, Megillot, Prophets, Bible contains four parts of the Chamisha Chumshei Torah, Megillot, Nevi’im and Writings. Essays on Hebrew grammar.
This frontispiece depicts scenes from bible stories, such as Moses receiving the tablets of law and Daniel in lion's den.
Norzi, Jedidiah Solomon Raphael ben Abraham, ca. 1560-ca. 1626.
YIVO Library
Refaʾel Ḥayim me-Iṭalya ha-rofe [Raphael Hayim from Italy, the doctor]
1742
Hebrew
Book
yl-000007213
Sefer Elim
Strashun Library
Mathematics
Astronomy
Hebrew literature
Amsterdam -- Jewish publishing
Lunski, Khaykl
Page from Sefer Elim by Joseph Solomon Delmedigo. Amsterdam, 1628.
Born in Crete to a distinguished Sephardic family, Delmedigo was the son of Rabbi Elija Delmedigo. After receiving a traditional Jewish education, he was admitted at age 15 to the University of Padua, where he studied mathematics and astronomy under Galileo (1564-1642). Astronomy and astrology were legitimate diagnostic tools at that time. In 1613 he went back to Crete to practice medicine, but did not stay there long. He traveled to Cairo and Constantinople, and became acquainted with several Arab and Jewish mathematicians and scientists.
In 1620 he was invited to live in Vilna and became the personal physician of Albert III Radziville (1589-1636), ruler of the Kingdom of Poland.
Sefer Elim discusses problems in mathematics, natural philosophy and metaphysics. It also includes the first explanation in Hebrew of the theories of the Polish astronomer, Copernicus (1473-1543).
Sefer Elim was published in Amsterdam, where the restless Delmedigo moved in 1628. It was edited and printed by another Renaissance man, the famous Talmudic scholar Manasseh ben Israel (1604-1657). Manasseh, son of a Portuguese Converso who returned to Judaism, established the first Hebrew printing press in Amsterdam in 1626.
This copy of the book bears the stamp of Khaykl Lunski, last head librarian of the Strashun Library.
Delmedigo, Joseph Solomon
YIVO Library
Menasheh ben Yisraʾel
1628
Hebrew
Book
yl-000040369
Sefer Itim le-vinah
Strashun Library
Calendars -- Jewish
Itim le-vinah by Joseph ben Moses Aaron Ginzberg, Warsaw, 1886.
Itim are appointed times (seasons, months, times of the day) in the Jewish calendar and vinah or binah means wisdom. This book is a fine example of a sefer evronot, a genre that uses rabbinic chronology for determining how to calculate the Jewish calendar and times for prayer. Sifre evronot often included astronomical data and perpetual calendars. This edition also provides data to use in determining the times of sunrise and sunset in various locations in the Russian Empire.
This genre of Jewish literature focused both inward on Jewish life and culture and outward, in its awareness of the calendars of the non-Jewish world and utilization of secular sciences such as astronomy. As Elisheva Carlebach notes in Palaces of Time: Jewish Calendar and Culture in Early Modern Europe (Harvard University Press, 2011), her book-length study of sifre evronot,
Jewish calendar literature… demonstrates how a minority culture creatively and simultaneously embraced and distanced itself from the majority culture… Calendars served as agents as well as mirrors of the Jewish experience. Their pages contained a graphic representation of the fundamental duality of their lives in time, with the neatly arrayed rows of Hebrew months alongside the Christian or Muslim, Jewish holidays along with non-Jewish, portraying a double consciousness that has symbolized Jewish life for much of its history.
Ginzberg, Joseph ben Moses Aaron
YIVO Library
Y. Goldman
1886
Hebrew
Book
Rescue of a Book
Strashun Library
Sutzkever, Abraham
Kaczerginski, Shmerke
World War II -- Nazi Looting
Label in a book in the YIVO Library:
From the Sutzkever-Kaczerginski Collection at YIVO
This book is from the YIVO Library in Vilna. During the years of the destruction, friends of YIVO hid it from the Germans, and after the war A. Sutzkever and Sh. Kaczerginski sent it to YIVO in New York.
There is special collection of books and documents rescued by the poets and partisans Abraham Sutzkever and Shmerke Kaczerginski at YIVO.
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
YIVO Library
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
Yiddish
Book
yl-000004108
Inscriptions from Sefer Shaʻare Teshuvah
Strashun Library
Marginalia, Hebrew
Sha'are Teshuvah (The Gates of Repentance), by Yonah ben Abraham Gerondi, (Rabbenu Yonah, d. 1264) is a guide for those who wish to repent and return to a life of Torah. This edition was published in Krakow in 1581. The book was owned by several other men before passing into Matityahu Strashun's hands in the 19th century.
It is not unusual to find inscriptions and marginalia in old Hebrew books. Here are several from this book:
“Nosn Nete,” a pre-Strashun owner of Sha'are Teshuvah, notes that even though the sages say that it is forbidden to write in books, the fact that there are book thieves in the world compels him to write in the book that it belongs to him.
Another Hebrew inscription that quotes passages from the Talmud and other sources about thieves seems also designated as a warning to book pilferers and may be in the hand of Shemu'el Strashun, Matthias's father, an important rabbinical scholar and communal activist.
In one inscription, Shmu'el Strashun crosses out the ex libris inscription of a former owner of the book, Mikhl son of Avrom, and appends his own name instead.
Occasionally, there is evidence that not every reader paid much heed to the idea that books were to be revered and treated as holy objects. It is not that uncommon to come across penmanship practice or bits of arithmetic in the fly-leaves of some books: This grocery list from 1802 records prices for milk, eggs, and [poor quality?] cherries.
Gerondi, Yonah ben Abraham
YIVO Library
Yitsḥaḳ ben Aharon mi-Prosṭits
1581
Hebrew
Book
yl-000004108
Sefer Shaʻare Teshuvah
Strashun Library
Rabbinical Literature
Poland -- Jewish Publishing
Shaarei Teshuvah (The Gates of Repentance), by Yonah ben Abraham Gerondi, (Rabbenu Yonah, d. 1264) is a guide for those who wish to repent and return to a life of Torah. This edition was published in Krakow in 1581. The book was owned by several other men before passing into Strashun's hands.
Gerondi, Yonah ben Abraham
YIVO Library
Yitsḥaḳ ben Aharon mi-Prosṭits
1581
Hebrew
Book
yl-000004108
Sefer Kol Bo
Strashun Library
Rabbinical Works
Italy -- Jewish Publishing
Jewish Customs
Sefer Kol Bo Book [All is Within] by an unknown 13th or 14th-century author is a commentary of Jewish customs and rituals.
This edition was printed in Rimini ca. 1526 by Gershom Soncino. The illustration of the tower on the frontispiece is Soncino's trademark. It depicts the Tower of Rimini along with a passage from Proverbs 18:10: "The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous run into it, and are saved."
YIVO Library
Gershom Soncino
1526
Hebrew
Book
yl-000007541
Sefer Isur Veheter
Sefer Isur ve-heter (What is forbidden and permitted) is a treatise on Jewish dietary laws written by Yonah Ashkenazi, thought to be the son of Rabbi Israel of Regensburg, a student of Rabbi Israel Isserline. (This work is sometimes erroneously attributed to the Catalan rabbi Yonah Gerondi , d. 1264).
This copy of Isur ve-heter was printed in 1555 and is the earliest edition of the work. The YIVO Library also has later editions published in the 18th and 19th centuries. The 1555 edition was printed in Ferrara, Italy, by Avraham Usque, during a short period (lasting only a few years) in the 16th century when Jews were permitted to publish books in the city.
The anchored globe in the center of the illustration is framed with a verse from Isaiah (40:31): “But they that wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.” The banner wrapped around the anchor is a line from Psalms 130: “I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in His word do I hope.”
Like many of the rare books in YIVO’s collection, Isur ve-heter contains stamps and inscriptions that attest to the many hands it passed through before ending up in the YIVO Library in New York. In addition to the stamp identifying it as being from the Strashun Library, the book also bears the stamp (left) of Rabbi Benzion Ettlinger, the son of Rabbi Jacob Ettlinger, the Chief Rabbi of Altona (1798-1871), a noted leader of Orthodox Judaism and early opponent of Reform Judaism.
Some time between the 16th and 20th centuries, a page of the book became damaged and someone repaired it with a hand-lettered patch.
Ashkenazi, Yonah
YIVO Library
Avraham Usque,
1555
Hebrew
Book
yl-000001205
Netiv lashon ‘ivrit
Strashun Library
Dictionaries, Hebrew-German
Haskalah
Prussia -- Jewish Publishing
The stated purpose of Netiv lashon ‘ivrit (Path of the Hebrew language) was to teach Jewish children Hebrew. The anonymous author imagined the book being put to use in Jewish schools. There is no year of publication noted but it is believed that this book was printed in Dyhernfurth, Prussia (presentday Brzeg Dolny, in southwestern Poland) in the late 18th century. The town had a long tradition of Jewish printing. The dictionary only goes up to letter “G” and it isn’t known if any additional volumes were ever published.
This book follows in the footsteps of leading light of the Berlin Haskalah Moses Mendelssohn’s 1783 translation of the Pentateuch (the Torah) into German, Netivot ha-shalom (Paths of Peace), which had Hebrew text and the German translation (in Hebrew letters) printed side by side. The “Path” in the title Netiv lashon ‘ivrit was likely an homage to Mendelssohn.
The book is extremely rare (there are less than half a dozen known copies in libraries around the world). The book may also have been previously part of a library in Radoszkowice (presentday Belarus), as attested to by the Russian inscription on the title page, which notes that the book was cleared by the rabbinate of Radoszkowice for the Russian censor in 1838.
YIVO Library
18th century
Hebrew
German
Book
yl-000002316
Sefer Meshal ha-Kadmoni
Spain -- Jewish publishing
Literature, Hebrew
Sefer Meshal ha-Kadmoni [Parables of Antiquity] by Isaac ben Solomon (1244-1300?). With 80 woodcuts. Venice, Paranzoni, 1547.
Parables with moral lessons written in 1281 by a Castilian Hebrew poet, scholar, and kabbalist as a response to the popular Arabian Nights. To increase its popularity, the book was embellished with miniature woodcuts, making it the first illustrated Hebrew book ever printed.
Isaac ben Solomon
YIVO Library
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
1547
Hebrew
Book
Venice 1546 1546