Masechet Bikurim min Talmud Yerushalmi. With commentary by Abraham Eliezer Alperstein.

(AMERICAN JUDAICA)

Chicago

1887

Habermann and Rabbinowicz, 217-8; Singerman 3502 (2 copies). No copy in JNUL

First Tractate of the Talmud and first Talmudic Commentary printed in America. The text of Tractate Bikurim (First Fruits) of the Jerusalem Talmud is surrounded in this volume by three commentaries, all prepared by Alperstein. It was the first volume of the Talmud published in America and “the typography…compares favorably with the finest European typography.” See A.J. Karp, From the Ends of the Earth, p. 318. In the introduction, Alpestein extolled the virtues of the members of his congregation in Chicago, however in time, relationships clearly changed, for in a later edition he revised the introduction and instead referred to his congregants as “wild boors.” Alperstein (1853-1917) was born in Kobrin, Lithuania, and he studied under the guidance of R. Joseph Dov Halevi Soloveitchik and R. Jacob David Willowsky (Ridbaz). After serving as a rabbi in Slobodka and other communities, he settled in America in 1881. He occupied pulpits in New York, Chicago, and St. Paul. He was a vice president of Agudath Harabbonim and the first instructor at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (Yeshiva University). See Moshe Sherman, Orthodox Judaism in America, pp. 18-20; Le-Toledot Rashei ha-Yeshivah, Zikhronam Livrakhah (New York) 1.