1884 VILNA, FIRST EDITION
LANGUAGE: HEBREW
First complete edition of this popular 11th-century Midrash on the Torah by R. Tobias ben Eliezer with the glosses of R. Solomon Buber and R. Meir Katzenellenbogen of Padua. Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy by R. Meir Katzenellenbogen of Padua (1884) from the Venice edition with corrections.
R. Solomon Buber (1827–1906) was a scholar and authority on midrashic and medieval rabbinic literature. Buber was born in Lemberg, Galicia, into a well-known rabbinic family and devoted himself to the publication of scholarly editions of existing Midrashim, printed or in manuscript, and to the reconstruction of those that had been lost. His Midrash editions and those of some medieval works constituted a veritable revolution in the production of reliable texts. Their learned introductions are major research works in themselves, and the annotations give a complete picture of the textual problems and parallel passages. R. Buber was a man of independent means and financed his scholarly projects personally. Not only did he pay for the expense of publication, but he also paid for people to visit various libraries to copy manuscripts. Buber's achievement is all the more remarkable in view of his active business life. He was a governor of the Austro-Hungarian Bank and the Galician Savings Bank, president of the Lemberg Chamber of Commerce, and a member of the Lemberg Jewish community's executive council from 1870.
R. Meir Ben Isaac Katzenellenbogen, (Maharam of Padua, 1473–1565) was one of the greatest Italian rabbis and halakhists of his time. R. Meir was born in Prague where together with R. Shalom Shakhna he studied under R. Jacob Pollak. From Prague he went to Padua, where he studied under R. Judah b. Eliezer ha-Levi Minz, marrying his granddaughter, Hannah, daughter of R. Abraham b. Judah ha-Levi Minz. In 1525, after his father-in-law's death, he was appointed rabbi of the Ashkenazi synagogue of Padua, serving there until his death. Meir was also head of the council of regional rabbis in Venice and he took an active part in their meetings despite his many other responsibilities. Many rabbis, including R. Moses Isserles, addressed him in their responsa as the "av bet din of the republic of Venice." He also represented the Padua region at Venice meetings in matters of a general nature, not only in religious affairs. R. Katzenellenbogen presided and headed the list of signatories in the capacity of "delegate of representations of the republic of Venice." He was renowned for his modesty, his benign disposition, and the fatherly interest he took in the students in his yeshivah of Padua, to which aspiring scholars streamed from near and far. The great esteem in which he was held by his contemporaries found expression in a tablet affixed to his seat in the Ashkenazi synagogue which read, "No man [has] sat there till this day," as testified by R. Isaac Hayyim Kohen, a cantor who saw the tablet 120 years after Meir's death.
R. Tobias ben Eliezer called it Lekah Tov ("good doctrine") on the basis of its opening verse (Prov. 4:2): "For I give you good doctrine" which he chose with allusion to his name (for the same reason he begins his interpretations of the weekly portions of Scripture and of the Scrolls with a verse containing the word tov, "good"). The book was called Pesikta by later scholars, and also, in error, Pesikta Zutarta. Tobias lived in the Balkans (Buber), and his Midrash contains allusions to contemporary historical events and specific reference to the martyrs of the First Crusade of 1096 (in the portion Emor and in his commentary on the verse "Therefore do the maidens love thee," Song 1:3). Zunz defined the Midrash as a composition which is "half exegesis and half aggadah," but even in the "half aggadah" the exegetical commentary aspect is conspicuous. Tobias took the ideas he needed from the Babylonian Talmud, the halakhic Midrashim, and the early aggadic Midrashim (including some no longer extant), as well as from the early mystical literature and used them as the basis of his Midrash. He did not however quote them literally nor as a rule did he mention their authors. He translated Aramaic passages as well as Greek and Latin terms into Hebrew; abridged the language of the early authors; and even combined their sayings and refashioned them. He tended to quote scriptural verses from memory, which explains the many variations from the standard text. The work also contains hundreds of explanations by Tobias himself, some in the style of the midrashic literature and some giving the literal meaning. He expounds the keri and the ketiv, the masorah, gematriot, and notarikon and also gives many mnemotechnical devices in the manner of the rabbis. His literal explanations are based on the rules of grammar, vocalization, accentuation, etc. It is noteworthy that he explains anthropomorphic verses and statements as parables and frequently repeats: "The Torah speaks in the language of men." This tendency is without doubt an aspect of his violent struggle with the Karaites which finds expression in the Midrash in many places. His practical aim is also conspicuous when he deals with certain halakhot whose performance was apparently neglected in his time. Tobias' Midrash was frequently quoted soon after it was written, but until the end of the last century only the Lekah Tov to Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy had been published (first edition, Venice, 1746).
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