THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 28 Friday, March 21, 1980 The more extensive a man's knowledge of what has been done, the greater will be his power of know- ing what to do. —Benjamin Disraeli 22101 Coolidge, 1 Block S. of 9 Mi. Opan Sun., Mar. 23rd & 30th Call 548-4031 We Bone—Skin—Grind—Fish Free WE WRAP FOR FREEZING ENJOY THIS PASSOVER WITH THE FINEST KOSHER L'PESACH PRODUCTS coiLnO kosbea tcLi icv:tA • • • • Under Strict Rabbinical Supervision U.S. Gov't Inspected WILNO KOSHER dmilmq ttagfaL BOLOGNA CORNED BEEF FRANKFURTERS SALAMI GENERAL OFFICES: CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60609 SALAMI • FRANKrURTERS • CORNED BEEF • BOLOGNA LOCAL DISTRIBUTOR: JULIUS 14558 Wyoming Detroit 48238 POLLAK Tel: 931-0300 `Lost' 15th Century Talmud Is Published NEW YORK — An im- portant work of 15th Cen- tury scholarship will be- come available for the first time this spring. Almost 500 years after the compila-, tion of the material, the Jewish Theological Semi- nary of America will pub- lish an edition of the Babylonian Talmud long thought to have been lost. Seminary Chancellor Gerson D. Cohen and Prof. Haim Z. Dimitrovsky, com- piler and editor of the work, have presented an early copy of the new edition to Israeli President Yitzhak Navon at her Jerusalem re- sidence. Through detective work and incredible scholarship, Dr. Dimitrovsky, a Talmud scholar who holds the Judge Abraham Lieberman Chair in Talmudic Exegesis in the seminary faculty, has lo- cated 550 pages of the lost volumes — and continues to identify additional leaves each week. His search takes him far afield, and brings him photographs of single pages or fragments of pages of unidentified Hebrew Learn how good poultry can be, from... 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For almost 500 years, knowledge of this edition of the Talmud had been based wholly on rumor. There was an oral tradition that such a work had been compiled, and that it differed from edi- tions of the Babylonian Talmud that had come down to us in many important re- spects. In the 19th Century, Jewish bibliographers tried to identify old leaves and sections of texts as belong- ing to this tradition. Schol- ars could not agree on the identification of the frag- ments and the Spanish text was once more relegated to the domain of rumor. There it rested for an- other three-quarters of a century, until Dr. Dimit- rovsky chanced upon a page of Talmud in the seminary library. A Talmud page among the thousands of un- catalogued fragments in the seminary's manuscript col- lections is not an unusual find, but upon examination the professor realized that this particular fragment contained variant readings not found in any known Talmud text. Dr. Dimitrovsky em- barked upon a hunt which took him to other repositories of Hebrew manuscripts. He searched through the col- lections of materials from the Cairo Geniza housed at the Vatican, Cam- bridge University and the Bodleian at Oxford. He examined odd pages and fragments in Israel and in private collections. While examining a 16th Century book in the semi- nary library, he noticed, through a tear in the cover, that the binding had been stiffened with a dozen or so printed pages, glued to- gether and covered with cloth. Carefully removing the pages, he found them to be leaves from the Spanish Talmud, and contemporary bindings became a new and fruitful place to search. Dr. Dimitrovsky deduced that Jewish printers, expel- led from Portugal, had taken all their possessions — including the unbound pages of the new Talmud — to their havens of refuge in Italy, Turkey, North Africa, and even Holland and Palestine. Despairing of ever producing the Talmud on which they had been working for more than 15 years, the printers had used 041th 5013 nynv wl °PRI') Silt +1r 1. 5 rivq ?},1,1 r014 4171',2)-tA0p uln rtpz rnitvt : it `w °r `rt. twIlm nwtoi ""f r.t'il V14' MOP 11217 4: 1 4 041$ 1 4 Oil nrnril rviv r m, T-551 mtr l rvInDt pv3 Om t 7-1,1 rillrim 11,11711', ri1$0 mrom pYrinnitt twin 1:7°1 mrwro ttrn,f onn 1.1rtp;r1mt./ -sslx 'Tint- pro-1 wrim rtiv )11 :3 11thrttivitrmrtall 1g, awl Irtrtikrt vvrt nf , t7o K3tv nrIL " twin i Are rtivn:a ton t ,ttrr,,..v ,71' , $r”*‘an twirl N51 mt.= 5;7 "as qr..:Y.,rAtt)rir rho,*)8 41- g11 rimrt- min rovki u- nv$ n,t4V-1,7e` g < F:dRC1tlt. r,Tr.°1 77 7:11 mon Iwpn TV.Z' 1r11,0 nrix r- 0,1'),,, t ,/, irrtz ,r0P /r1.749K)14 v/t1111qtrol' 1114'.741t4:510V11130mtvi'l 5tirtR zn,411otin roi,b n tfirewlts *'; Tynn WM1 5 171 Shown is a facsimile page from the "lost" Spanish Talmud, one of 550 such pages identified by Prof. Haim Z. Dimitrovsky and published, with his com- mentary by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. the precious paper on which printed in the early 16th it had been printed for stif- Century, and this proved a fening the bindings of other rich source for the pages he volumes. was seeking. These, added Working this to other fragments, enabled on hypothesis, the professor him to identify pages from asked colleagues all over' many sources as belonging the world to examine the to the "lost" Spanish edi- bindings of Hebrew books tion. Baghdad Rabbi Played Vital Role for the Jews of Iraq By RABBI MARC ANGEL American Sephardi Federation NEW YORK — Most Jews have at least a vague awareness of the tremen- dous role the Jews of Iraq have played in Jewish his- tory. Going back to Babylo- nian days, we know of the major centers of rabbinic learning and of the de- velopment of the authoritative Babylonian Talmud. In a later period, most Jews have heard of the Gaonim who were the lead- ing rabbinic authorities for most of the world's Jews for several centuries. The re- sponsa and commentaries of the Gaonim are still studied with deep respect today. It is not generally known, however, that Jewish schol- arship and rabbinic learn- ing continued to flourish in Iraq until our own day,. Baghdad was an important center of Jewish life and could boast of many schol- ars and authors. One of the leading rab- bis of Baghdad in recent times was Yosef Hayyim ben Eliyahu Al-Hakam (1835-1909). Born in Baghdad, he studied with the rabbis of his city. In 1859 he became the preacher of the commu- nity, a post which his father had held before him. Rabbi Yosef Hayyim was well known as a halakhic authority and the author of numerous responsa. All in all he wrote about 60 works on different as- pects ofJewish learning, al- though not all of these have been published. His most famous work is the "Ben Ish Hai" which combines moral lessons based on the Torah portions of the week and Halakha. His kabalistic orientation clearly man- ifests itself in his writing• He also authored volumes of commentaries to the ag- gadic sections of the Babylonian Talmud, and was the author of numerous poems and songs. O•e of his interesting volumes is a small book entitled "Mashal Venims- hal," in which he presents various moral lessons through stories and para- bles. Because he was a gifted storyteller, he was able to reach the hearts as well as the minds of his people. Washing Hands Religious Tenet By RABBI SAMUEL FOX (Copyright 1980, JTA, Inc.) It is necessary to use a vessel when washing one's hands for religious purposes in Judaism. Some claim that this is the reason that the benedic- tion is recited at washing-_ the hands is "Al N'tilal Yadaym' (i.e., on taking something like a vessel (to wash) for the hands). One of the reasons given is that "human action" is necessary in order to obtain spiritual purification. "Tak- ing" a vessel and "pouring it" over one's hands involves human action. The implication is that it lies within human power to bring about spiritual purifi- cation. Man is not only capable of doing so, he is mandated to do so.