Aaronsohn, Moses. Mata'ei Moshe [sermons, responsa and commentary to Song of Songs]

(AMERICAN JUDAICA)

Joel Moses ben M. Salomon

Jerusalem

1878

FIRST EDITION. Woodcuts of the Holy Places. Haskamoth of the Sephardic Rishon le-Zion, Abraham Ashkenazi, and of the former Rabbi of Brisk, Joshua Leib Diskin

Halevy 308

Born in Salant, Lithuania in 1805, Moses Aaronsohn migrated to New York in 1860, where he served as Rabbi of the Adath Yeshurun synagogue on Allen Street. He died in Chicago in 1875. Aaronsohn’s intention of settling in the Land of Israel was fulfilled by his widow and sons. It was they who brought the manuscript of Mata'ei Moshe to Jerusalem, where it was published. Following a biographical sketch of the Author, the work contains several responsa reflective of the turbulence of Jewish life on New York's Lower East Side. Of American interest: Responsum 8 (ff.19v.-21r.) is addressed to the Jewish community of Baltimore concerning the fall of a Torah scroll from the Holy Ark. * On f.25r. the Author mentions the founding of the Allen Street Synagogue. * Responsa 12-13 (ff. 26v.-38r.) represent an exchange with the renowned Polish halachist (and Chassidic Rebbe) R. Abraham [Landau] of Tchechanow, as to how to draft a bill of divorce (Get) in New York. On f.34r. there is discussed the proper Hebrew orthography of "New York." This is probably the earliest communication from a Chassidic Rebbe to America. See I. H. Sharfman, The First Rabbi - Origins of Conflict between Orthodox & Reform: Jewish Polemic Warfare in pre-Civil War America (1988), pp. 463 (facs. of title page), 596-7