Masecheth Berachoth. Edited and translated into German by E.M. Pinner

(TALMUD, BABYLONIAN)

Berlin

1842

FIRST EDITION. Hebrew and German face `a face. Hebrew and German titles in red and black. Full-page dedication to Czar Nicholas I, and six page list of subscribers including Royalty

Rabbinovicz pp.246-8

This ambitious attempt by “Dr. E.M. Pinner, member of the Asiatic Society of Paris” to translate the entire Talmud into German, was aborted after only one volume, the reason being that several prominent rabbis withdrew their support for the project. The book bears the encomia of the Chief Rabbis of Constantinople, Hezekiah Abraham Halevi and Samuel Chaim; R. Abraham Löwenstamm of Emden, Holland; Rabbi Zalman Trier of Frankfurt a/Main (1757-1847); and R. Asher of Karslruhe (son of “Sha’agath Aryeh”) (1761-1839), all staunchly Orthodox, curiously followed by those of arch-Maskillic beliefs: Abraham Stern, Isaac Baer Levinsohn of Kremenetz, and Jacob Tugenhold of Warsaw. The first array are referred to as “Rabbanim ha-ge’onim ve-ha-mefursamim” [famous rabbis]; the second array as “Chachamim ha-gedolim ve-ha-mefursamim” [famous savants]. Strangely, Moshe Kunitz, author “Ben Yochai,” of Pest (and later Ofen), listed among the “rabbanim.” Kunitz, certainly espoused decidedly reformist tendencies The final leaf contains novellae by Pinner's teachers, R. Yaakov of Lissa, author of Nethivoth Ha-Mishpat and R. Leib Sheindeles the Rosh Beth Din of Lissa which were never republished in later editions of the Talmud