Brith Mateh Moshe. With commentary by Moshe b. Isaiah of Wengrow and Vilna

(HAGADAH)

D. E. Jablonski

Berlin

1701

FIRST EDITION. Text of Hagadah in square Hebrew characters provided with nikud, commentary in Rashi script

Yudlov 103; Yaari 67

An extensive pilpulistic commentary to the Hagadah. Rabbi J.J. Halberstamm, the late Grand Rabbi of Klausenberg was often wont to refer to this Hagadah and saw to it that it was reissued in order that "youth will appreciate the complete Talmudic mastery and acuity of the sages of the 18th century." (Silberman edition, Brooklyn, 1980). The composer of the Brith Mateh Moshe often digresses to bemoan improper social behaviors of his time: (he expresses shock at the satiric parody Masechet Purim); he criticizes women who insistently harangue their husbands, resulting in children absorbing a disdainful atmosphere. He also chides women for their maltreatment of those in their domestic service. Throughout, the author reproves and castigates those "who cause many of the social ills of (the) time, a result of a haughty bearing and slothfulness over ethical behavior." R. Moshe, a disciple of Rabbis Moshe of Horadna and Mordecai Ginzburg of Brisk, states he was originally a member of the Chevra Kadisha of Yehudah Chasid. This fact, as well as his interesting, descriptions of the personalities in this fellowship, have escaped the notice of scholars. The book is adorned by the Haskamah (endorsement) of R. Naphtali Katz of Posen, et al. See Z. Shazar (Rubashov), Reshumoth, Vol. II (1927) pp. 461-93; G. Scholem, Beit Yisrael Be-Polin, Vol. II (1949) pp. 36-56; A.Yaari, Shluchei Eretz Yisrael, pp. 322-3; E. Carlebach, Divided Souls (2001) pp. 84-85