YOCHANAN B. ISAAC OF HOELLESCHAU (Editor). Teshuvath Hageonim [responsa concerning the correct pronunciation of the name of God]. * WITH: Ma’aseh Rav [halachic polemic]

(ANGLO-JUDAICA)

Immanuel ben Joseph Athias

Amsterdam

1707

FIRST EDITION. Title within typographical border

Vinograd, Amsterdam 832; Fuks, Amsterdam 426

The polemic concerns a divorce granted by Chief Rabbi Aaron Hart (also known as R. Uri Phoebus Hamburger) to one Ansel Katz of London prior his flight to the West Indies due to gambling debts. This divorce was publicly criticized by Mordechai Hamburger who was promptly placed under the communal ban of “herem.” The ensuing quarrel involved Rabbis from three different countries (the Chacham Tzvi of Hamburg and the Rabbis of Amsterdam and Rotterdam) and caused a rift in the Aschkenazic congregation of London. Interspersed are many personal details concerning the internecine conflict of the protagonists of this Anglo-Jewish cause celebré. See also G.W. Busse, The Herem of Rabenu Tam in Queen Anne’s London, in JHSE Transactions, Vol. XX (1968) pp. 138- 48