(TALMUD, BABYLONIAN)

London

v. d

Sha”s HaMasbir - Masechta Berachoth. Prepared by Joseph Shapotshnick. With various old and new unpublished commentaries. pp. (10), 3-52. London, M. Tschetinsky, 1923. * Bound with:Sha”s Hagadol SheBegedolim- Masechta Berachoth. With commentaries by Rashi, Tosafoth, etc. Prepared with a commentary by Joseph Shapotshnick and Shalom Isaac Levitan (Kristania, Norway). London, B. Weinberg, 1919.

cf. Rabinowitz, Ma’amar al Hadfasath Ha-Talmud, pp. 186-88.

THE LARGEST FORMAT TALMUD EVER PRINTED. Berachoth was the only tractate published. A prolific author on a host of subjects (including science, psychology (“praised by Freud”) and music), Joseph Shapotshnick was a notable non-conformist figure of his time. Sha”s HaMasbir was published as an addendum to his previously published Sha”s Hagadol Shebegedolim. It contains additional unpublished manuscript material not published elsewhere; viz: manuscript notes of R. Joseph Saul Nathanson of Lemberg; Mekor Baruch by R. Chaim Baruch of Lentchna (a disciple of R. Jonathan Eybescheutz); R. Meir Jechiel of Ostravtsa and his son R. Jechezkel. It is interesting to note that this volume contains manuscript material from both R. Abraham Isaac Kook, the Chief Rabbi of Eretz Israel and one of his chief antagonists, R. Pinchos Epstein, the Rosh Beth Din of the Eidah HaChareidith. Shapotshnick also published additional material pertaining to tractate Berachoth including Sha”s HaKollel and Sha”s HaMashpia. For more on this fascinating, maverick English rabbi see H. Rabinowicz, A World Apart: The Story of the Chasidim in Britain (1997) pp. 56-66.