Israel ben Samuel of Shklov. Pe’ath ha-Shulchan (Agricultural Laws of Eretz Israel)

(LAND OF ISRAEL).

Israel Bak

Safed

1836

FIRST EDITION. Printer’s device on title page.The inscription on the title informs us the book was given as a gift by R. Moses Joseph to his son Israel.

Vinograd, Safed 12; Vinograd, Vilna Gaon (Jerusalem, 2003), no. 1543; Yaari, Hebrew Printing in the East (1940), p. 22, no. 11; Halevy, The First Hebrew Books Published in Jerusalem, p. 20, n. 5

Laws applicable to the Holy Land, based on Maimonides and in particular the rulings of the author’s mentor R. Elijah, the Gaon of Vilna. These are written in a style approximating that of Joseph Karo’ code Shulhan ‘Arukh (Prepared Table), hence the name Pe’ath ha-Shulchan (Corner of the Table).The book was printed just in the nick of time. On January 1, 1837, an earthquake all but destroyed the Jewish community of Safed. R. Israel of Shklov happened to be in Jerusalem at the time, attempting to revamp the Ashkenazic community of the city. He organized relief efforts for the survivors of the catastrophe.Yaari, Sheluchei Eretz Israel (Jerusalem, 1977), p. 781. Rabbi Israel ben Samuel of Shklov(1770-1839) was the leader of the Kollel Perushim, the followers of the Vilna Gaon in Eretz Israel. After the death of his first wife in 1813, R. Israel remarried Yuta Beila, daughter of R. David of Yampola, of the Kollel Chasidim in Safed. This marriage took place at a time when relations between the Chasidim and Mithnagdim were far from congenial. Cynics justified R. Israel’s actions based on the Talmudic saying, “A Moabite may not enter into the congregation—A Moabite but not a Moabitess.” Bezalel Landau, cited in Aryeh Morgenstern, Ge’ulah be-Derekh ha-Teva (Jerusalem, 1989), p. 182, n. 55. See further JE, Vol VI, p. 669; S. Levi, “Rabbi Israel of Shklov,” Sinai III(1939):30-37; L. Jung ed., Men of the Spirit (1964), pp. 63-81. This is one of six books Israel Bak, a recent immigrant from Berdichev, managed to publish in Safed between the years 1832-1836. Eventually, he would set up press once again—in Jerusalem. But five years would pass in the interim. See Shoshanna Halevy, The First Hebrew Books Published in Jerusalem (Jerusalem, 1975), pp. 15-21