TRAUMAN, ABRAHAM (KALISCH). Birkath Avraham [novellae on Tractates Chulin, Kiddushin, Gittin, and Sanhedrin]

(TALMUD).

Eastern Europe

Early 19th-Century

Autograph manuscript. Cursive Aschkenazic script. Double columns. On front board in Hebrew: "Zeh ha-sepher shayach la-adoni avi ha-rav ha-baki mo"h Avraham Troiman" [This book belongs to my father, the encyclopedic R. Abraham Trauman]. On front fly in German: "Abraham Kalisch"

In the introduction to his published work Chesed LeAvraham (Breslau, 1846) the author, Abraham Trauman, a native of Kalisch, Poland bemoans the fact that he lacks the wherewithal to publish his collected Talmudic novellae, entitled "Birkath Avraham." A century and a half later the manuscript yet awaits publication. On f. 19r. of Chesed LeAvraham, Trauman records a question he heard in his youth from the famous R. Yeshayah Pick. On f. 5v. Trauman records a conversation he had with the R. Meir Leibush Malbim regarding the latter's premier work Artzoth ha-Chaim (Breslau, 1837)