(AMERICAN JUDAICA).

AN EXTRAORDINARY SET OF RARE AND IMPORTANT TEXTS REPRESENTING THE PINNACLE OF ISAAC LEESER’S ACHIEVEMENTS ON BEHALF OF EARLY AMERICAN JEWRY. Leeser’s most important legacy to American Jewry was his endeavour to spread Jewish literacy. Toward this end he prepared pioneering English translations of the Bible and the prayer book. The set offered here for sale contains Leeser’s Pentateuch and his Sephardic prayer book. The Law of God, which Leeser worked on for seven years (vol. 1, p. v), contains the Hebrew text, an English translation (on facing pages) and the Haphtaroth (Prophetic pericopes). The Hebrew text is based on the one prepared by Wolf Heidenheim (vol. 5, p. 146) and the original English translation is the first one published by a Jew; earlier editions published by Jews in England merely contained the text of the King James Version. As Leeser himself explained, “However much a revised translation may be desired by all believers in the Word of God, there is no probability that the gentiles will encourage any publication of this nature, emanating from a Jewish writer . . . The arrangement [of this edition] is strictly Jewish. My intention was to furnish a book for the service of the Synagogue, both German and Portuguese” (vol. 1, pp. iii, viii). In 1853 Leeser published an English translation of the entire Bible without the Hebrew text. Sidur Sifthei Tzadikim, Leeser’s comprehensive Sephardic prayer book, was originally published in 1837 and was the first American edition containing the liturgy for the entire year. It contains the original Hebrew text and an English translation. Leeser marketed his prayer book both to audiences in America and the British colonies in the Caribbean, and he thus included prayers on behalf of a Monarch and a Republican Government. Siddur Siftei Tzadikim was reprinted a number of times; the set presented here was published in 1857 (the title page of vol. 1 states it is the third edition and the title pages of the other volumes state that it is the second edition). In his “preface to the stereotype edition” (dated 1853) Leeser explained that prior to preparing the stereotype plates he “corrected[ed] many small errors both in text and translation”. He also changed the translations of Biblical passages to conform to the edition he was then preparing for publication.