Yochanan B. Isaac Of Hoelleschau (Editor). Teshuvath Hageonim [responsa concerning the correct pronunciation of the name of God]. * WITH: Ma’aseh Rav [halachic polemic]

(ANGLO-JUDAICA).

Immanuel ben Joseph Athias

Amsterdam

1707

FIRST EDITION. Signature on title-page of Ya’akov Brisker.

Vinograd, Amsterdam 832; Fuks, Amsterdam 426.

The polemic concerns a divorce granted by Chief Rabbi Aaron Hart (also known as R. Uri Phoebus Hamburger) to one Ansel Katz of London prior to his flight to the West Indies due to gambling debt. This divorce was publicly criticized by Mordechai Hamburger (founder of London’s Hambro Synagogue) who was promptly placed under the communal ban of “herem.” The ensuing quarrel involved the Chacham Tzvi of Hamburg as well as the Rabbis of Amsterdam and Rotterdam and caused a rift in the Aschkenazic congregation of London. Interspersed are many personal details concerning the internecine conflict of the protagonists of this Anglo-Jewish cause celebré. See also G.W. Busse, The Herem of Rabenu Tam in Queen Anne’s London, in JHSE Transactions, Vol. XX (1968) pp. 138- 48.