Talmud, Jerusalem. Masecheth Bikurim [on the First Fruits]. With commentary “Harel” by Abraham Eliezer Alperstein.

(AMERICAN JUDAICA)

Rosenberg Bros.

Chicago

1890

Second Edition. Title with vignette depicting the Tree of Life amidst Houses of Learning.

Goldman, Hebrew Printing in America 569; Singerman 3502

Alperstein (1853-1917) served the rabbinate in a number of Lithuanian communities, including Slabodka, before emigrating to the United States in 1881. First in Chicago, he relocated to New York, where eventually, became the first Rosh Yeshiva of the newly founded Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary - the nascent Yeshiva University. The work includes endorsements by R. Joseph B. Duber Halevi [Soloveitchik] of Brisk and Rabbi Jacob Joseph of New York. See M.A. Gutstein, A Priceless Heritage: The Epic Growth of 19th Century Chicago Jewry (1953), pp.128-9; and L. Mishkin, Dephusei Chicago be-Ivrith u-be-Yiddish in: Chicago Pinkas (1952), no. 8.