Solomon Aaron Wertheimer

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Solomon Aaron Wertheimer.

Rabbi Solomon Aaron Wertheimer (November 18, 1866 – 1935), was a Hungarian rabbi, scholar, and seller of rare books.

Life[]

He was born in Bösing in 1866. In 1871 he went with his parents to Jerusalem, where he was educated. By 1890, he was residing in Cairo, Egypt, where he made a living as a rare bookseller and a collector and seller of Cairo Genizah documents. According to Arabist S.D. Goitein, he also published papers on them, but "in a somewhat unscientific way."[1] For five years starting in 1893, he tried to sell the British Library Geniza documents for pennies on the dollar, but many were declined.[2]

He is best known for his midrashic scholarship, his work is one of the two standard midrash compilations from the period (the other is Adolph Jellinek's Bet Ha-Midrasch).

He died in Jerusalem in 1935.[2]

Publications[]

  • Ebel Mosheh (1885), sermon delivered on the death of Sir Moses Montefiore
  • Ḥiddushe Rabbi Nissim (1888)
  • Pirḳe Hekalot and Ẓawwa'at Naftali (1889)
  • Darke shel Torah (1891), guide to the theory of the Talmud and to the fundamental principles of the Halakah and Haggadah
  • Ḥatam Sofer (1891), Talmudic studies, with notes; Batte Midrashot (4 parts, 1893-97), a collection of short midrashim from manuscripts, with glosses, notes, and introduction
  • Ginze Yerushalayim (3 parts, 1896-1902), a collection of scientific, literary, and poetic treatises, from rare manuscripts, with notes and introduction
  • Midrash Ḥaserot wi-Yeterot (1898), from the Parma manuscript, collated with three Egyptian manuscripts
  • Leshon Ḥasidim (1898), notes and introduction to the Sefer Ḥasidim
  • Ḳohelet Shelomoh (1899), a collection of geonic responsa, with notes and introduction, and with Hebrew translations of the Arabic responsa
  • 'Abodat Ḥaleb (1902), a commentary on the Jewish prayers; and Leket Midrashim (1903).
  • פירוש נביאים וכתובים לרבינו ישעיהו הראשון מטראני, the first printed edition of Isaiah di Trani the Younger's commentary to Hebrew_Bible#Nach (1956).

Today, his midrashim are normally printed in a combined two volume set edited by his grandson A. J. Wertheimer. Also entitled Batei Midrashot (Jerusalem: 1967), the work brings together midrashim from Batei Midrashot and Leket Midrash with notes and commentary.

References[]

  1. ^ Goitein, S.D. A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza. Vol. I: Economic Foundations. University of California Press, 1999, p. 2
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b Reif, Stefan C. A Jewish Archive from Old Cairo: The History of Cambridge University's Genizah Collection. Culture and civilisation in the Middle East. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 2000, p. 71 google books preview
  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. Missing or empty |title= (help)
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