Chidushei Masecheth A[vodath E[lilim]

BLOCH, MOSHE.

Strasbourg

1823-26

Hebrew Manuscript on paper, written in clear, cursive Ashkenazic scripts, few headings in a square script. Title-page within multi-colored decorative arch.

Novellae to Talmud Tractate Avodah Zarah, as well as Chullin, Rosh Hashana, Shabbath and Berachoth. Also contains a portion of “Chiluka DeRabanan” within Pesachim pertaining to Avodah Zarah. All apparently written by disciples in the name of their teacher, R. Moshe Bloch. The manuscript additionally contains incisive comments in both halacha and aggadah. Bloch’s studies on Tractate Chullin were published by his descendents in Jerusalem in 1998, based on a different manuscript located in Paris. The novellae on Chullin in the present manuscript should be compared to those in the published work (entitled “Yismach Moshe.”). R. Moshe Bloch (1790-1868) was a Rosh Yeshivah in Strasbourg and affectionately known by the Jews of Alsace as “Le Haham de Uttenheim” (the sage from Uttenheim - a small village in the Bas-Rhin department of north-eastern France). He studied under the Rabbi of Westhoffen, R. Abraham Isaac Lunteschutz, the author of Kelilath Yofi. One of Bloch’s more well-known disciples was Rabbi Zadok Kahn, Chief Rabbi of France during the Dreyfus affair.