Pethach Einayim [addenda to Shevirath Luchoth Ha’even]
AUCTION 46 |
Thursday, September 10th,
2009 at 1:00
Fine Judaica: Hebrew Printed Books, Manuscripts, & Graphic Art
Lot 102
EMDEN, JACOB
Pethach Einayim [addenda to Shevirath Luchoth Ha’even]
(Altona: By the Author 1757)
Est: $5,000 - $6,000
PRICE REALIZED $5,000
Excessively rare response to Ezekiel Landau's (the Noda BeYehudah) criticisms of Jacob Emden’s scathing Akitzath Akrav.
Anxious not to have the Jewish communites splintered by the dispute between Emden and Jonathan Eybescheutz, the Noda BeYehudah pronounced a ban on all books published by either participant in the protracted polemic. Thereafter, Eybeschuetz and his supporters aided the local authorites in searching Emden’s home for copies of this work and many copies were incinerated, some by the very people to whom they had been entrusted, very few copies have survived. See M. Carmilly-Weinberger, Censorship and Freedom of Expression in Jewish History (1977) pp. 88-9.