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Meiri, Menahem Ben Solomon, 1249-1306; Abraham Schreiber : BET HA-BEHIRAH 'AL MASEKHET BAVA BATRA

New York; Hadar Linotyping, 1956

Original Cloth. 4to. XVI, 733 pages. 26 cm. First edition. Added English title page: Beth ha-behirah on the tractate Baba bathra; composed by Rabbi Menahem ben Solomon, Ha-Meiri, XIII Century of Perpignan. Edited for the first time from a unique manuscript in the Palatine Library of Parma. With references and notes by Abraham Schreiber. “Avraham Sofer-Schreiber (1897–1982) , the son of the Erlau rabbi, was a prolific author who, although a scrupulously observant Jew, did not fit smoothly into the family’s Orthodox legacy. He served from 1948 to 1966 on the faculty of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. From the 1930s on, he dedicated himself to preparing critical editions of the writings of medieval Talmudists, most prominently the voluminous commentary of Menahem 'ha-Me’iri' of Perpignan. ” (YIVO Encyclopedia; Sofer Family) . Meiri's chief work is the gigantic Beit ha-Behirah on the Talmud, in which he was engaged from 1287 to 1300. In it he summarizes the subject matter of the Talmud, giving both the meaning and the halakhah derived from it. It follows the order of the Mishnah. The work covers the orders of Mo'ed, Nashim, and Nizikin, and the tractates, Berakhot, Hallah, Hullin, Niddah, Tamid, Middot, and Mikva'ot. Beit ha-Behirah has been republished almost in its entirety in recent years from a single complete manuscript (Parma) . Of particular interest is the introduction to his commentary on Avot, in which he gives the chain of tradition of Torah study from its outset to his own time. It contains valuable material for the knowledge of the history of Torah study in Spain and Provence, and was copied out in full and completed (updated) to his own time by Isaac Lattes in his Sha'arei Ziyyon (ed. By S. Buber, 1885) . In addition to Beit ha-Behirah, Meiri wrote commentaries on the Talmud which were expository rather than halakhic in orientation. Although the manuscripts in this group of a number of tractates are still extant, none has been published, except for the commentary to Avot and the Beit ha-Behirah to the tractate, Bezah, which apparently belong to this group. Meiri was one of the few rabbis of his time to make extensive use of the Jerusalem Talmud in order to clarify the parallel discussions in the Babylonian Talmud, and his works are therefore of added importance for research on the Jerusalem Talmud and its variant readings. Meiri's style contributes much to the lucidity of his presentation. His Hebrew is accurate, precise, and simple. In addition, he succeeded in finding the golden mean between the generally contradictory aims of expository comprehensiveness and halakhic definitiveness. These features endeared the Beit ha-Behirah to scholars and its volumes are now repeatedly republished in spite of their great length. Subjects: Talmud. Bava batra – Commentaries. OCLC lists 25 copies. Contains the bookstamp of Rabbi Stanley Platek. Cloth and outer edges lightly soiled, internally clean and fresh. Good condition. (RAB-55-49), Pla 6/13

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