Rosenberg, Abraham. Aneh Kesil ["Answer a Fool": An open rejoinder to Dr. Ritter regarding his criticism of the Yerushalmi Seder Kodashim in the periodical "Israelit"].

(POLEMICS).

Jacob Wieder

S. Warahl (Szatmar)

1908

FIRST EDITION

Friedberg, Ayin-949; See YU Museum Catalogue, Printing the Talmud pp. 288-9, no. 59 (incl. facs.) A detailed survey concerning this work accompanies the Lot

In Defense of the Forged Jerusalem Talmud. One of the most colorful characters in the rogue's gallery of Rabbinic literature is undoubtedly the man who called himself "Solomon Judah Algazi Friedlander." A century later, researchers are still trying to piece together the true identity of this enigmatic figure. Arriving in Hungary at the turn of the 20th-century, the man presented himself as a Sephardic Jew from the Orient, who made a startling discovery: a manuscript containing the long-lost Jerusalem Talmud on the Order of Kodashim [Sacrifices]. In 1907 Friedlander published the Yerushalmi on Tractates Chulin and Bechoroth. (Later, in 1909, these would be followed by Tractates Zevachim, Menachoth and Eirichin.) Although initially greeted with great enthusiasm, soon enough, doubts began to arise as to the authenticity of the work, and aspersions were cast on the moral character of the publisher, Solomon Judah Friedlander. Our pamphlet, Aneh Kesil, purports to be the work of one "Abraham Rosenberg," a disciple of Friedlander, who takes umbrage at the negative pronouncements of several experts concerning the "Yerushalmi." Of especial interest is a [supposed] letter from R. Chaim Soloveitchik of Brisk to Friedlander, in which he offers the services of a relative, R. Chaim Hakohen Shapiro of the District of Mohilev, as a distributor of the book, while diplomatically avoiding comment on the work itself (AK, f.5v.) Friedlander writes that he corresponded with the Dayan of Brisk, Avraham Yitzchak Halevi [Bleiweiss]. See Jekuthiel Judah Greenwald, "Ha-Yerushalmi al Kodashim," Sepher ha-Yovel shel ha-Pardess (1951), pp. 345-9