Roots of Librarianship

Librarian's Lobby

Roots of Librarianship
May 1999

The word ספר Sefer appears in the Tanach (Hebrew Bible) 116 times. It is used for the Torah, individual books of the Tanach, or for names of books that were lost (such as Sefer HaYashar). The words for library, ספריה Sifriah, and librarian, Safran, do not appear until modern times. The roots of librarianship are not very old at all. Depending on how you define a librarian, librarianship as a profession started in 1876 with the formation in Chicago of the American Library Association or in 1890 with the starting of the first library school by Melville Dewey.

In honor of Shavuot, the celebration of the receiving our first book, I want to share with you a few selections with the oldest references to the activities of librarians.

The first quote is from The Assumption of Moses(Aliyat Moshe)from the Apocrypha.¹

You receive this writing that you may know how to preserve the books which I shall deliver to you; and you shall set these in order and anoint them with oil of cedar and put them away in earthen vessels ... 1:17-18

The books in this quote refer to the books of the Torah. The people are told to expertly care for books of the Torah. We have three librarian activities: preserve books, arrange books, and store them properly.

From the Book of Maccabees II (the Apocrypha) 15:39

A book skillfully prepared is a delight to taste.

A librarian tries to select books that will be appropriate for the library readership.

Judah ibn Tibbon from 12th century Spain in his directions to his son tells him everything else a librarian must do. The most important is a catalog.

Take particular care of your books. Cover your shelves with a fine covering, guard them against moisture and mice. Write a complete catalog of your books, and examine the Hebrew books once a month, the Arabic books every two months, and the bound volumes once a quarter. When you lend a book to anyone, make a memorandum of it before it leaves your house, and when it is returned cancel the entry. Every Pesah and Sukkot call in all your books that are out on loan.²

The idea that one should lend books is a very noble one, considering that before printing books could cost the equivalent of 1-3 several months wages. Ibn Tibbon covers the areas of circulation, cataloging, storage, and preservation. He does not cover reference work, because his directions were to his son for his personal books. The story of reference librarians does not begin until about 1900. Before then library users were on their own. The library catalog was a inventory and finder's guide. It was not yet used as a bibliographic tool. Collections were so small ³ that readers just looked around.

When reading the Torah remember that this Sefer was the first book for us and it was the first library for most synagogues.

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Notes:

1. The Apocrypha is a collection of Jewish books dating from ancient times. Some were written in Biblical times and some were from after the Tanach was closed. The Hebrew originals of most of the books were lost. Our texts were preserved from the Greek and Latin texts. The Hebrew versions of the books were published by Avraham Kahane, Ha-Sefarim ha-hitsonim li-Torah, li-nevi'im, li-kituvim ...Jerusalem, 1970. The Kahane version is reconstruction of the original Hebrew; not strictly a translation from the Greek or Latin sources. Kahane uses fragments of the original texts found in the Cairo Geniza and other sources. The English version is : The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, edited by R. H. Charles, Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1913.

2. Quoted in: Jewish life in the Middle Ages, by Israel Abrahams. Jewish Publication Society, 1920.

3. In 1900 high school libraries were lucky to have 300 books in their collections.

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 ©2003 by Daniel D. Stuhlman. All rights reserved.
Last revised August 17, 2020

Bible Manuscript Question

Librarian's Lobby
Bible Manuscript Question
April 1999

Bible Manuscript Question

I subscribe to a computer discussion list for Jewish librarians called HaSafran. A recent question aroused my interest because of its connection to Torah manuscripts. The librarian asking the question was from Brooklyn. Her brother-in-law, Dr. Jordan Penkower, a professor of Tanach at Bar Ilan University¹, initiated this question. The question concerns the spacing of words. As you know, certain sections of the Torah are written in distinctive ways. If we change the spacing, the words remain the same and at least theoretically so should the meaning.

I want to illustrate the process of investigating his question rather than concentrate on the solution.

Sh'mot 15, Shirat HaYam, which we read on the seventh day of Pesach, is customarily laid out in a special form, as can be seen in the Koren Tanach. This is called "ariakh al gabei leveina." The professor is interested in the layout of verse 19. In the Koren Tanach In the Koren Tanach the words have extra spaces as in the Sefer Torah. This is the way it is laid out in both Ashkenazi and Sefardi Sefer Torah scrolls today. In the Tanach texts of Meir Letteris ³ the verse is laid out in the same paragraph as the rest of the Shirah, but the spaces between the words are different. He wants to find an Ashkenazi Torah scroll, more than 200 years old, that writes verse 19 as regular prose without the special open sections of poetry. He stated in a private e-mail that he has seen a Sefer Torah with verse 19 arranged as prose.

The first place I checked was contemporary printed texts from Koren and Letteris. These are the most common texts used in our Chumashim. These layout of texts in both examples are like the Sefer Torah. The Library owns one old Torah which is more than 100 years old⁴, however, we have no idea of its exact age and origin. This Torah has verse 19 as part of the poetical layout as in printed texts and other Sifre Torah.

The next step was to search Chumashim printed before 1852. In the chumashim that use the poetical format, all of them include verse 19 in the poetical layout. In the Mikra'ot Gedolot (i.e. Torah text with traditional commentaries) the whole chapter 15 is printed in block format.

The third step was to check manuscripts. I had two manuscripts available, the Leningrad Codex, about which I have written before, and the second was a manuscript that was used by sofrim to write Sefre Torah. This Bible manuscript was written in 1475. The original is manuscript no. 4 from Hebrew Union College Library in Cincinnati. The microfilm copy of this manuscript is from my personal collection. Neither of these manuscripts differ in the arrangement of verse 19. The verse is formatted as poetry.

Based on the evidence from contemporary printed works, printed works older than 150 years, and manuscripts, I conclude that the search is over. I have no reason to expect to find a Sefer Torah with verse 19 in a different layout than the poetical layout in our current texts. That does not mean none exisit, but rather an alternate spacing of the text would be hard to accept as an authentic alternative.

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1. The professor is a serious scholar of Biblical manuscripts. In 1992 Bar Ilan University Press published his book on Torah text in the Aleppo Codex.

2. The Siddur has a different version. Some Siddurim such as ArtScroll print the Shir as in the Sefer Torah until verse 18. Verse 19 is printed afterwards as an added verse in regular paragraph format. In the Birnbaum and Hertz Siddurim verse 19 does not appear. In some Siddurim the whole Shir is in paragraph form or in poetry form that does not match the Sefer Torah. Since the editors have no requirement to follow the format from the Sefer Torah or Chumash, the format used is not a proof of anything.

3. Meir Letteris (1800?-1871), Hebrew poet, writter and editor wrote many works of poems, translations of European literature into Hebrew, and works of non-fiction. His most enduring work was the editing of the Hebrew text of the Tanach for the British and Foreign Bible Society of London in 1852. This work, while providing the basis for innumerable editions of the Hebrew text, also damaged Letteris' reputation among his fellow Jews.

The texts I checked were The Pentateuch with haftoroth... English translation by Alexander Harkavy. New York, Hebrew Publishing Company, 1928; The Pentateuch and the haftoroth. Rodelheim, M. Lehrberger, 1900; Torah, Nevi'im Ketuvim, ... \\ Norman Henry Snaith. [London], British and Foreign Bible Society, 1995. The format of the spacing is different than Sefer Torah. However, Dr. Penkower disagrees with my perception of the format. He says that the verse is in prose because the verse has no extra spaces between the words. I say that the verse is attached to the previous section because the Chumash has a "Peh" for parshah petuhah after verse 19. I am not sure if this is a scholarly debate or a disagreement of perception.

4. While it is very likely to find a 100 year old Torah scroll in an American synagogue, it would be very rare to find one older than 200 years old.

 ©2003 by Daniel D. Stuhlman. All rights reserved.
Last revised July 7, 2003, Aug. 5, 2020

Songs of Our People

Librarian's Lobby
Songs of Our People

January 1999

Jewish Music Exhibit "Songs of Our People"

The long promised Jewish music exhibit, "Songs of Our People" is finally ready. The exhibit features books and records with examples of four kinds of Jewish music : Israeli, Hasidic, Yiddish, and hazanut. Tape recordings from Hazzanim Moshe Koussevitsky and Josef Rosenblatt may be heard as part of the exhibit. Many of the records are from a recent gift from the Shisler Family.

The exhibit in the display cases in the Library reading room is viewable whenever the Library is open.

New History Project

A few weeks ago the Library received a call from a professor of history doing research on the Jewish community in Terre Haute, Indiana. He was preparing a local history on the occasion of the congregation's 100th anniversary. He had information from local records, but was missing information on the rabbi who severed in 1912. He had already checked the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati. They had information on many of the later rabbis, but the rabbi from 1912 was not in their records. The professor knew the name of the rabbi and dates of service, but nothing about his background. Since the rabbi was orthodox, he asked if we had any information. The name was not in any reference book and we have no archival materials on rabbis.

This question brought to mind a query from a CRC rabbi working on a problem with a get. The CRC rabbi wanted to know where the rabbi who married the couple received his simicha. We found the rabbi in question in a reference book. While the source did not list the institutions where he learned, it did list the rabbinic organization the rabbi belonged to. This was enough of a clue for the CRC rabbi.

After talking to several people, we came up with an idea to gather and save information about rabbis. This will be a joint project between the Saul Silber Library, the Chicago Jewish Archives (part of Spertus Institute's Asher Library), the CRC and possibly other organizations. At this time we are working out the details. The two libraries will keep copies of curriculum vitae, resumes, and other bibliographic information that the rabbis may submit. The documents will be cataloged using our library management system. The documents will not be changed or edited by the libraries.

This is a project to save history. Some time in the future when researchers want to know about the rabbi who married their grandparents, or the rabbi of a shul many years earlier, we will have records.

The documents will minimally contain the rabbi's names, city of residence, educational background, and congregations or organizations severed. This project will probably limited to rabbis who are members of a professional rabbinic organization. If the rabbi claims membership, we will include the documents. Privacy will be respected. If the rabbi does not want information shared, then we will restrict access to the file for the time limit requested. After a pilot project we may ask the community to submit documents for deceased and retired rabbis. We seek input from you as to what you think should be preserved and what you are willing to share.

Articles by Hebrew Theological College Faculty

The December issue of the Jewish Observer had two articles by HTC faculty members. Rabbi Ben-Zion Rand wrote on Rabbi Mordecai Rogow and Rabbi Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer wrote about Chumras.

Rabbi Rand is the editor of Likutei Peshatim Tiferet Asher, published in 1998. Rabbi Rogow was born in the city of Lipnishok, Lithuania. He studied in yeshivot in Radin and Mirrer. During the war he was the posek for the refugee community in Shanghai. Rabbi Rogow arrived in Chicago in 1946 and became the Rosh HaYeshiva of Bet HaMidrash LaTorah succeeding Rabbi Chaim Korb.

Rabbi Rand spent many hours interviewing Rabbi Rogow's son and of his former students for this article. He frequently quotes in Likutei Peshatim, from Rabbi Rogow's book on Torah, Ateret Mordecai, and is working on an English translation of that book that will introduce another generation to the teachings of Rabbi Rogow.

Rabbi Bechhofer is in charge of the Community Service Division at HTC and the Frumie Noble Kollel. He is also an expert in the Talmud Yerushalmi.

In his article, "Good Chumros? : the big question," Rabbi Bechhofer analyzes what is a chumara and classifies them into four broad categories,

• Based on halakhic issues
• Based on Ahavat Hashem;
• Based on Yirat Hashem;
• Based on separation from the pursuit of material and physical pleasures.

Rabbi Bechhofer recognized that some chumras may be based on sociological issues. Some people may be machmir for some of the "right" motivations and some to enhance one's avodat Hashem.


 ©2003 by Daniel D. Stuhlman. All rights reserved.

Last revised July 7, 2003, Aug. 5, 2020

Preserving Books and Information

Librarian's Lobby
December 1998

Preserving Books and Information

Many library readers ask about " latest and greatest" on a topic. Most readers will reject items that are "too"old. However, a research collection has to save materials for centuries. This month I want to talk more about old Hebrew books and a project to save Yiddish books.

16th Century information

A rabbi in the community was researching the institution of rabbinic semikha. He found a reference to a book Mahari Be Rav. He called the library to see if we had a copy. He was not sure of the author's name. After checking the catalog and Bet Eked le-Sefarim (a bibliography and Hebrew books) I did not find the book. Since the rabbi knew it was a book of responsa, I tried the Bar Ilan CD. I found the book there. The full title was : She'alot u-teshuvot Mahari Be Rav. Mahari was an abbreviation for Moreinu ha-rav Ya'akov. The rabbi needed to see the actual book. With the exact title and author I was able to find it in our catalog and retrieve a 1957 edition of the book.

This is an example of a difficulty with imprecise citations. Sometimes Hebrew books have a popular name. Sometimes these popular names were known at the time the book was written, but we don't know the books by these names now.

The author of the book, Ya'akov Berab (ca. 1474-1541) was a halakhic authority who lived in Palestine, Egypt and Syria. He was born in Maqueda near Toledo, Spain and went to Morocco after the expulsion from Spain. While he lived in Egypt he conceived of the idea of renewing Semikha.The halakhic opinion of the time was that Semikha could not be given outside of Eretz Yisrael. His halakhic decisions were reported in this book and were widely quoted by Joseph Caro and his contemporaries.

Preservation Project for Yiddish Books

Last month I mentioned that projects are underway to preserve information in a digital format. I received some news about a project at the National Yiddish Book Center in Massachusetts called the Steven Spielberg Digital Yiddish Library. Aaron Lansky, Center President, announced that they will be scanning every page of every title in their collection and storing the information as computer files.

When the scanning of a book is completed they will be able to produce on demand an affordable, acid-free reprint edition. Sometime in the future, they may also offer books in electronic format, either on CD-ROM (or what ever medium is best) or by direct downloads.

When the technology of optical character reading (OCR) advances to allow accurate Yiddish processing, the graphics files will be processed to save the book information in a text format.

Scanning is scheduled to begin on February 1, 1999. They expect to process about 800 items per month, or about 20,000 over the next two years. When done with their in-house collection they plan to work with several major research libraries to capture an additional 15,000 Yiddish titles. Eventually they hope to scan periodicals as well. The entire project is expected to take four to five years to complete.

The Yiddish Book Center will be posting a web page (yiddishbookcenter.org) with a user-searchable database. Using library software from VTLS, records will include both standard romanization following library authority rules, as well as the original Hebrew characters. End-users will be able to search their database by author, title and LC subject. Within a year, they should be able to offer readers the ability to order copies through their web site.

Once it's up and running, the "Steven Spielberg Digital Yiddish Library" should make most Yiddish titles available in unlimited quantity in perpetuity. Naturally, this is an exciting news for the preservation of Yiddish titles.This should encourage another organization to preserve titles in other languages used by Jews such as Judeo-Arabic, Ladino, Judeo-Persian, etc.

Manuscript Talmud Yerushalmi

One of our teachers is very interested in the Talmud Yerushalmi. He teaches a Daf Yomi based on the Yerushalmi. He made a request for a copy of the only extant full manuscript of the Yerushalmi.The original manuscript¹ in the Leiden University Library (Codex Orientalia #4720) is one of their prized possessions. It was written by the scribe, Yehiel b. Yekutiel b. Benjamin ha-Rofe. The scribe explicitly states that he copied it from a corrupt text, full of errors; although he made an attempt to correct them. In addition to the mistakes it is evident from quotations in the rishonim that the scribes freely changed some of the spellings to conform to the Talmud Bavli.

This manuscript was once owned by Daniel Bomberg, who used it as the basis for the first printed edition of the complete Talmud Yerushalmi (Venice 1523). Bomberg had three other manuscripts that were more "accurate". These other manuscripts have been lost.

The Leyden manuscript was restored in the early 1970's by Lucie M. Grimbere. On the occasion of the restoration an article appeared "Het Leide Handscripts van de Jeruzalemse Talmud" (The Jerusalem Talmud Manuscript of Leyden) in the Dutch periodical, Studia Rosenthaliana 7 (1973) pp.258-265.

We were able to obtain a photocopy of the pages that the teacher needed.

 

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1. I found the city spelled both Leiden and Leyden. The manuscript was described by Moritz Steinschneider (1816-1907) in Catalogus codium hebraeorum : Bibliothecae Academiae Lugduno-Batavae. Originally published in 1858; reprinted by Biblio Verlag, 1977 and Albert van der Heide in Hebrew manuscripts of Leiden University Library, published by Universitaire Pers Leiden, 1977.

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 ©2020 by Daniel D. Stuhlman. All rights reserved.
Last revised July 7, 2003

Hebrew Manuscripts

Librarian's Lobby
November 1998
Hebrew Manuscripts

One of our faculty members, who always has interesting questions, came to me about 3 weeks ago to ask if I could help him get a copy of a Hebrew manuscript. Actually he didn't need to see the whole document. He wanted a copy of the title page.

Standard library procedure is to verify the reader's source and then either look for an existing copy or ask the library that owns it to make a copy for us. In this case the source was a history of Jewish manuscripts titled, Historisches Woerterbuch der juedishen Scriftsteller und ihere Werke von G. B. De-Rossi. Leipzig, 1839. On page 54 De-Rossi mentions a manuscript of the Latin translation of Bechji Ben Asher's *1* Commentar zum Pentateuch (Commentary on the Torah). The Latin translation by Konrad Pellikan was supposed to be in the Stadtbibliothek von Zurich (Zurich City Library).

I went to the Internet to try to find the address of this library. I couldn't find it in a list of Swiss libraries. I found the Swiss National Library and the University of Zurich, but they did not have the manuscript. I checked the Hebrew University and other libraries for copies, but none had it listed in their catalogs. I asked my fellow librarians for help. In a day or two I received over 15 replies. The Stadtbibliothek von Zurich, which traced its roots back to 1649, was taken over in 1914 by the Zentralbibliothek von Zurich (Central Library). I found the web site for the catalog of the Zentralbibliothek. I tried to search the catalog, but there was some incompatibility with our computer systems. I wrote to the reference librarian for help and received the following reply:

     Probably the manuscript you are looking for is our "Ms Car C 24". 

     The official manuscripts catalog from Leo C. Mohlberg (published 1932) 

     mentions it under no. 240  on p. 98 "Abraham Ibn : in Pentateuchum, ebersetzt von Konrad Pellikan." 

He is sending a copy of the title page and colophon. Since there is a discrepancy between the De-Rossi citation and the Mohlberg citation, we are anxiously awaiting the photocopy.

When we discuss Hebrew manuscripts for scholarly purposes we are usually referring to books, letters and documents written on papyrus, parchment, hides and paper written in Hebrew characters. According to the Encyclopedia Judaica there are an estimated 60,000 codices (book format) and 200,000 most of which are from the Cairo and the Judean Desert. The numbers do not include modern manuscripts such as Torah.

Libraries have a dilemma -- we have to make books and materials available for use and we have to preserve the artifacts of our culture for future generations. In seeking to preserve rare and precious items, libraries zealously restrict access to them. Libraries apply the rule, "First no harm." There are careful procedures for handling precious items. *2* Sometimes only the information is what makes the item important and sometimes the scholar needs to see the actual object as an artifact. In addition to physical protection we have used many ways to save information. Publishers re-print old books either on paper *3* or in micro-form. We photocopy the pages from books or transcribe the words to prevent harm to the original.

For precious manuscripts we want to save the originals from harm. That is why in most libraries they are locked up or in secure climate controlled rooms. Programs are underway at the Hebrew University to systematically photocopy and film all Hebrew manuscripts. Other programs are trying to digitize items and make them available on the Internet or on CD-ROM. I have seen an exhibit on the internet of a manuscript Haggadah. *4* Programs to microfilm items have been in place since the mid-1950's. But by today's standards these films are not clear enough.

The advantages of reproduction in a digital format (CD-ROM or Internet) are images that can be in wide immediate distribution. Searching documents and linking one document to another is relatively easy. The information in digital format will last a long time without changing. The disadvantage is that on Shabbat we can not use our computers.

American Rabbis: facts and fiction

Last month I reviewed the book, American Rabbis : facts and fiction, by David J. Zucker. The author is a friend of one of the regular readers of this column from Denver. He gave Rabbi Zucker a copy of the review and Rabbi Zucker sent an e-mail to me thanking me for the review. Here is a quote from his e-mail:

"I thought you did a very good job in presenting what I had to say in the book, and I enjoyed reading your words. Your Belkin quote is excellent, I have added it to my files.

I am sure that there is some truth to your comment that I am more of a reporter / gatherer than an analyzer, though we might disagree over specific points, and my intent for the major thrust of the book."

 

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1. The name is spelled Bachya Ben Asher in the library catalog.

2. For example, for most books we place spine labels facing out so that readers can find the books quickly. For rare books we use an acid-free marker sticking out of the top. Books with brittle paper are placed in acid-free envelopes or acid-free special boxes. We lock up rare and valuable items. Hebrew Theological College Library has about 75 reels of microfilm copies of rare books and manuscripts.

3. In the March and May 1998 issues of Librarian`s Lobby I wrote about the Leningrad Codex. That project was not a re-print, but a photographic reproduction of the manuscript. The process was intended to give the reader as close of an experience as possible without touching the original.

4. Two sites on the Web http://www.cn.huc.edu/libraries/haggadahs/ for Haggadah exhibit and http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~lbarth/ for Rabbi Lewis Barth's Pirqe Rabbi Eliezer Electronic Text Editing Project.

 ©2003 by Daniel D. Stuhlman. All rights reserved.
Last revised July 7, 2003

Review of American Rabbis

Librarian's Lobby
August 1998

American Rabbis

Recently the Hebrew Theological College Library received the book, American Rabbis facts and fiction, by David J. Zucker (Northvale, NJ : Jason Aronson, 1998). The author is a chaplain, formerly he was a congregational rabbi and professor. He earned a Ph. D. from University of Birmingham in England. The topic of the book fascinated me immediately, since I have been involved in a search for a new rabbi of my synagogue. I was anxious to learn about the rabbinate from a rabbi's point of view.

This book still leaves me with mixed feelings. I don't know if I should praise the book or criticize it. Rabbi Zucker has done an excellent job of surveying the literature both fictional and non-fictional rabbis. Much of the findings will probably sound very familiar to you and some will probably sound like something from "left field."

One story that Zucker quotes, I found particularly revealing about the mixed expectations of a shul board and the rabbi. The story, "The Wise Men of Wentworth," by Stanley F. Chyet, originally appeared in Chicago Jewish Forum 21:1 in 1962.

When Rabbi Gotthelf comes to the town of Wentworth, he meets with the Board of Directors. He explains that he intends to take weekday mornings for study. His board was uniformly appalled. They asked why he had to study if he is a rabbi. "You don't know rabbi,we're running a shul, not a yeshiva. ... When Rabbi Gotthelf explained that a rabbi's studies are never completed, he met with incredulity. The president groans, "When a rabbi graduates from the yeshiva, he's a scholar. So why do you have to study?" The board then fires Rabbi Gotthelf on the spot. They refer to him as an "unfinished, a half-baked rabbi."

The next rabbinical candidate fares completely differently. He too, wishes to be left undisturbed Monday through Friday mornings. When the board asks why, Rabbi George Handler related the fact that he is a married man, and explains that he sleeps best in the morning. "A sign of relief, of understanding, of satisfaction had welled up from the board members and the president.

"You see gentlemen, a rabbi what is a rabbi, a full, finished rabbi, we got." "A full-baked rabbi," another congregant caustically remarks."

This story highlights some of the great difficulties in human communications. The first rabbi was just trying to continue his life-long learning. Perhaps in 1962 congregants didn't understand the preparation required to deliver sermons and prepare for classes? Perhaps the second rabbi knew what he needed and told the congregation what they wanted to hear?

Zucker examines many of the sub-groups of rabbis and explains some of the differences and similarities. One chapter covers rabbinical training. HTC is mentioned in the section about Orthodox rabbinical training, but Yeshiva University is the most prominent.

The book has chapters on how congregents view rabbis, the rabbi's family, non-congregational rabbis, and how rabbis view the rabbinate. Zucker ends with the future of the rabbinate.

It is hard to be a Jew, and it is harder to be a rabbi .. the rabbinate is a cultured profession; it is honorable. ... Rabbis are in a position to influence the future of Judaism. What could be more exciting and rewarding!

Every profession has its rewards and challenges. After serving on a search committee I have come to realize that a rabbi has to be a great communicator. Great communicators know when to talk, when to listen, and when to admit they don't know the answer.

My first criticism of the book is the way Zucker deals with rabbis in fiction. There is a certain amount of "truth" in fiction. Fiction has a way of dealing with issues that can't compare to a scientific survey. In fiction the author can support, condemn, or invent the facts to tell a better story. While literary analysis has an important place in scholarship and even the understanding of the society that surrounds the story, Zucker seems too free in his mixing of the stories of fictional rabbis and the hard facts about rabbis. Rabbi David Small and his congregation may have some great interactions, but Rabbi Small lives in a fictional town invented by Harry Kemelman. One can not use Rabbi Small as an example of an American rabbi. He is an American fictional rabbi. Zucker freely uses fictional events and stories and leaves out stories from real rabbis. His bibliography has no biographies or auto-biographies of American rabbis.

My second criticism is that Zucker tries to survey too much and leaves some topics covered too shallowly. Zucker is more of a reporter and gatherer of facts than an analyzer. He weaves a picture of the rabbinate from hundreds of sources yet tells us nothing new. After reading the book I am left with the question "So---?"

Zucker could have saved a lot of time if he just read what Dr. Samuel Belkin wrote: The rabbi, according to Dr. Samuel Belkin,1 "is the custodian of the ideals for which the Synagogue stand for. .. leader of the Jewish community .. social worker, the social architect. ... The rabbi must symbolize the beth ha-tefillah ... His true function is to be the Jewish scholar, the authority on Jewish law, teaching the Torah to his community." Forty years later Dr. Belkin's analysis is still accurate no matter what kind of rabbi the person is -- Orthodox or not; congregational or institutional. Zucker does not even mention Dr. Belkin's article in the bibliography.

Three other books on the topic of the American rabbinate that the Library owns are :

Herring, Basil, editor. The Rabbinate as Calling and Vocation : models of rabbinic leadership : a project of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. Northvale, NJ : Jason Aronson, 1991.
Polner, Murray. Rabbi : the American experience. New York : Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1977.
Zeitlin, Joseph. Disciples of the Wise the religious and social opinions of American rabbis. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 1945.

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1. "The Rabbi," by Samuel Belkin in The Sanctity of the Synagogue, edited by Baruch Litvin. New York, 1959.

© 1998. Last revised October 25, 1998

Mahzorim

Librarian's Lobby
August 1998

Mahzorim

It is gratifying to me to hear the wonderful response that this column has generated. This is the 14th column. I have heard from readers in person, by phone, by written note and by e-mail. Readers have asked library reference questions, and I have been able to answer them. Thanks for the support. Shanah Tovah.

Mahzorim

This time of year, rabbis and their congregations are thinking about Yomim Noraim. The Library has an exhibit of books related to the season. I would like to describe some of the Mahzorim in the display. If you want to learn more about the history of Tefillah and how the siddur evolved I would suggest : The story of the prayer book, by Philip Arian and Azrial Eisenberg and Jewish liturgy and its development, by A. Z. Idelsohn.

Imagine you are in a shul before the days of printing. It is already several hundred years after Rashi and Saadia Gaon. The order of prayers and local customs are somewhat fixed. The hazzan no longer improvises the words. How many books are in this shul? The answer is one for the Hazzan and a few for the very rich members who are able to afford to pay for a manuscript copy. Most of the congregants must either memorize the prayers or listen very carefully to the hazzan. The Hazzan's siddur is written in big letters so that a few people can look over his shoulder.

The word Siddur is from the root [sdr] meaning order. The Siddur is a book of prayers in a fixed order. The word Mahzor is from the root [hzr] meaning cycle. The complete phrase for the name of this book was, Mahzor shel Tefillah. A mahzor was a collection of public and private prayers for the complete cycle of life from birth to death. For example, a mahzor would contain the Pesah seder, while a siddur would not. These are the earlier uses of the words. Today the connotation is to use the word mahzor for a prayer book associated with a particular holiday, usually Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. One of the earliest mahzorim, called Mahzor Yannai, was discovered in the Cairo Genizah. Another early edition, Mahzor Vitri, combined the text of the tefilot with commentary.

The HTC Library owns a manuscript mahzor that was written for individual use (i.e. not for the hazzan). It is about 442 pages and 19 cm. tall. The copy does not indicate a date, place or owner.

Printing made books affordable for the masses. The oldest printed prayer book that the Hebrew Theological College Library owns is from about 1699. The following are samples from our collection.

Sha'ar bat rabim : mahzor halek sheni 'im perush haderet kodesh ki-minhag kahal kodesh Ashkanazim yishmeret ha-'el. Venice, 1711. Leather cover. 2 vol. ; 40 cm.
Both volumes start with Selihot with a very fancy box around the word . The table of contents is in the back of volume 2. Volume 1 has a section of halachot before shaharit. The main text is in large letters with commentary on the outside. Volume 2 contains the prayers for Yom Kippur, Sukkot, and Shemini Atzeret. The order of tekiat shofar appears in volume 2.

Mahzor li-rosh ha-shanah vi-yom kippurim, Vilna, 1865. Leather cover. 336 p. ; 29 cm.
he volume begins with shaharit. The text of the prayers is in large letters, with a Yiddish commentary in smaller print in another font on the bottom. Instructions are in Yiddish. Even though the title pages says this is for Rosh Hashanah, the prayers for Yom Kippur are included starting at page 163.

Minha hadasha : mahzor liyom sheni shel Rosh haShanah min Michael Minahem Konavo. Kratashin, 1838. Gold stamped leather cover. 128 p. ; 22 cm.

On display is one volume out of a set, containing a volume for each holiday. The Hebrew text is in one font and a German commentary in Hebrew letters is on the bottom printed in another typeface. The Haftorah has a German translation.

Mahzor likhol mo'ed ha-shanah : ki-minhag ha-midinot Polin, Behemen, Mehareo, vi-Ungaran ... fun Mendel BR"Y Shtern. Wien, 1862. Tooled leather cover.
This is from a set of nine mahzorim, each for different holiday. The Hebrew text and German in Hebrew letters are in parallel columns. The print is mostly in one size font.

Mahzor li-Rosh haShanah = Form of prayers for the New Year with English translation. New York, 1866. Leather, gold stamped cover. Gilded edges. 2 vol. in 1. ; 20 cm.

English translation and Hebrew text are on parallel pages. This edition was actually prepared in 1864. What is interesting is that this is a traditional mahzor in English at a time when many of the American Jews spoke German and were leaning away from the traditional liturgy. There is no introduction to explain the prayers or how the book came to be published.

Seder tephilot kol ha-shanah Gebetbuch fur die neue Synagogue in Berlin. Theil II Neujahrsfelt und Versohnunstag. Berlin, 1881. Leather tooled cover. Gilded edges. 464 p. ; 21 cm.
Hebrew text with German translation and instructions. Includes a prayer for Kaiser Wilhelm in German. The German text is in Gothic typeface.

Mahzor li-Yom Kippur = Prayer book for the Day of Atonement with English translation by A. Th. Philips. New York, 1937 [c1931]. 361 p. ; 20 cm.

Hebrew text and English translation are on parallel pages. This was the standard English translation of the Mahzor used before Philip Birnbaum edited his edition. A companion volume was published for Rosh Hashanah. There is no commentary. The few instructions are in Hebrew.

Mahzor rinat Yisra'el li-Rosh ha-Shanah : nusah Sephard. Yerushalayim, [1978] 365 p. ; 22 cm.

This Mahzor is aimed at an Israeli audience. The print is clean, crisp and easy to read. There are notes and explanations in Hebrew at the bottom of some of the pages.

Cataloging Mahzorim

All forms of prayer books require a uniform title. The uniform title is the form found in the Encyclopedia Judaica. The uniform title is the means for the library to keep like materials together. The terms for liturgical works are all familiar to us, i.e., Siddur, Haggadah, Mahzor, Kinot, Selichot, Zemirot. We would also add a date so that the items can be more easily arranged. For example : Mahzor. Hebrew and English. 1978; Mahzor. Hebrew and German. 1881. Added entries are included for the title as it appears on the title page and editor, translator, or other person (or corporate body) responsible for the content. Because so many editions can be published, finding items in the catalog without an exact title or editor may require help from the librarian.

Items are generally cataloged under the uniform title that the editor or publisher suggests on the title page. A book that contains daily prayers and Shabbat prayers is a Siddur.>/i> A book with festival prayers may be a Mahzor or a Siddur, depending on the publisher. A book that contains multiple liturgical works would be cataloged under the most prominent one or if none is prominent, under the first to appear in the book.

 ©2003 by Daniel D. Stuhlman. All rights reserved.
Last revised July 12, 2020