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

(AMERICAN JUDAICA).

Yoel Moshe Salomon

Jerusalem

1878

FIRST EDITION. Woodcuts of the Holy Places in the Land of Israel. Approbation of the Sephardic Chief Rabbi and of the former Rabbi of Brisk.

Halevy, Jerusalem 308.

Born in Salant, Lithuania in 1805, Moshe 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 here: 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 notes the founding of the Allen Street Synagogue. * Responsa 12-13 (ff. 26v-38r) records an exchange with the renowned Polish halachist (and Chassidic Rebbe) R. Avraham 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 likely the earliest communication from a Chassidic Rebbe to the United States. 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) and 596-7.