WHAT OUR LIBRARY OFFERS TO OUR STUDENTS THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES WHAT OUR LIBRARY OFFERS To OUR STUDENTS BY PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MARX Reprinted by courtesy of tKe General Publication Committee of tKe Students' Annual of tKe JewisK TKeological Seminary of America New York, 1914 WHAT OUR LIBRARY OFFERS To OUR STUDENTS BY PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MARX Reprinted by courtesy of tKe General Publication Committee of tKe Students' Annual of tbe Jewish Theological Seminary of America New York, 1914 WHAT OUR LIBRARY OFFERS TO OUR STUDENTS BY PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MARX. I GLADLY avail myself of the opportunity offered by the kind invitation of the Editors of the Students' Annual to contribute to their publication an article on a subject which is meant primarily for the students themselves. I wish to speak of the purpose of our collections of old books and manuscripts and the use to which they can and ought to be put; and nothing could be more gratifying to the writer, than that some of his suggestions would be taken up by our students perhaps in a future issue of this Annual. Of course the following remarks are in no way meant to be exhaustive ; they simply contain suggestions occurring to the writer, while glanc- ing over our MSS. for the purpose of this paper. In these eminently practical times, we are particularly inclined to overlook the importance of the study of our past and to under- estimate the value of the extant records of the spiritual achieve- ments of our forefathers. Collecting old Hebrew books is looked upon by many as a useless fad of people interested in curiosities which are devoid of all real value. Writing for future Rabbis, it is not necessary for me to enlarge upon the importance of the study of Jewish history and literature; but it might be desirable to dis- cuss the value of our collections for these studies. The most important subject for which a very good library is absolutely indispensable is the edition of texts. Correct texts form the basis of every historical and literary investigation; and yet, in spite of all that has been done in the line of Jewish science during the past century, very little in comparison with other literatures has been done for producing correct texts of our standard works. In a recent publication on the Oriental Masora, Dr. Kahle re- marks, that nobody would think of quoting a classical author in an edition of the beginning of the 16th Century as is being done with the Masoretic text of the Bible, for which the publication of Jacob ben Hayyim has remained the standard-text in spite of the fact 918 WHAT OUR LIBRARY OFFERS TO OUR STUDENTS 219 that the material for and the principles of textnal criticism have greatly advanced since that period. This remark, as I have often had occasion to point out, applies with even greater force to the larger part of Jewish literature. Of Jacob ben Hayyim's text we have at least some fairly reliable modern reproductions which are accessible to every serious student; but most of the other works of our literature are accessible only in reprints which do not go back directly to the first editions, but to more recent prints which were in many cases full of the worst blunders. For, instead of being corrected with the help of MSS., or at least of the early editions, they became the victims of the acumen and ingenuity of modern proofreaders, who tried to make emendations as best they could and thus produced texts which are utterly useless for scientific pur- -poses. To give some instances, the separate editions of the Mishna were made to agree with the Babylonian Talmud in the middle of the 16th century; and the Midrash-quotations of the Yalkut were "corrected" according to the Venice editions of these books. These texts are constantly referred to, because the older editions, owing partly to the zeal of the censors of the 16th century, are extant in only very few copies. It is thus evident that the scholar is com- pelled to go back for every point of importance to these first edi- tions, which it is in most cases impossible to obtain, and which can be acquired only on rare occasions when a copy is somewhere offered for sale. If we ever wish to develop Jewish science in this country a good library in which the early editions are well represented is a conditio sine qua non. But it is not only the first editions that are necessary for the student ; in many cases the corrections of later edi- tions are also valuable and must be consulted by the editor of a text. In some rare cases later editions are based on other MSS., like Menahem Meiri's commentary on Proverbs which was printed three times from different MSS. Without consulting the later editions it would be impossible in many a case to understand the conclusions of modern scholars based on these texts. It is therefore evident that in Hebrew literature the old books cannot yet be classed as curiosities, but are the most necessary implements of scholarship. It is a fortunate thing indeed that Judge Sulzberger many years ago foresaw the coming need of a great Hebrew library in this country and began to bring together many of the rarest books at a time when their acquisition was still comparatively easy, and thus 3021857 220 STUDENTS' ANNUAL procured for us a great many books which can perhaps never be bought again. If the use of old editions is of the greatest value to the scholar, manuscripts are still more useful. I need not repeat here the fact that for restoring a text the most acute mind is not half as good as a MS. Wherever such are extant, they must be consulted for an edition which claims any scientific value. But our MSS.{jo more than merely correct our printed books. A vast part of Jewish litera- ture is still unpublished and only accessible in MSS. Of course a great many of these no longer deserve publication, but it would be a serious mistake indeed to assume that all the best and most in- teresting works were made accessible by the early printers. In the first place they generally published those texts which happened by chance to be at hand and the cases of careful preparation like those for Bomberg's editions of the Eabbinical Bibles and of the Talmud form the exception; and secondly, our ideas as to what is to be considered interesting and important are quite different from those of the publishers and readers of former centuries. There is ac- cordingly a considerable number of books which ought to be edited in full. Besides these, many more ought to be examined and de- scribed so that they find their place in the history of Jewish lit- erature, whilst extracts should be made of all the passages contain- ing historical and biographical matter. One more fact I wish to point out before mentioning some of the treasures of our collections which should be made accessible to the scholar. There is probably no better scientific training than the careful edition of a text. The necessity of paying attention to every word, its meaning and its correctness, of studying language and style of the author in order to decide between the various read- ings serve as an invaluable practice in thoroughness and accuracy in detail, which will afterwards prove useful in every branch of scientific activity, and prevent hasty conclusions from insufficient evidence. The comparison of different texts shows how little one can in many cases rely on the statements of our sources, how often careless misprints are the basis for ingenious constructions and fanciful hypotheses. At the same time the editor is compelled to feel quite certain about the meaning of every sentence, the difficulty of which the ordinary reader will frequently overlook. To under- take an edition is therefore very advisable for a young man, and it WHAT OTTB LIBRARY OFFERS TO OUR STUDENTS 221 has the additional advantage that his contribution to learning will be of lasting value as his name will remain connected with that of the author whose work he publishes. I shall now mention a number of subjects which could well be treated with the material accessible to the student in our library. Among works on the Bible Abraham ibn Esra's commentary on the Pentateuch, generally considered his chief work, might be edited from the two valuable MSS. of ours, one of which was written in Magnesia in 1347. In addition to these the variants of a third MS. published by the late Professor Bacher, as well as the three earliest editions of this book (Naples, 1488; Constantinople, 1514; Venice, 1525) which were printed from different MSS. are avail- able for a critical edition. Such an edition based on these texts would perhaps not be absolutely final, but it would mean an enor- mous step forward in the understanding of this most difficult author, whose peculiar style requires most careful consideration. Much easier, but not less important, are the commentaries of E. David Kimhi with their numerous interesting quotations. For his work on the Prophets the editio princeps (Soncino, 1485-6), the Leiria edition (1494) of Judges 1 and the Lisbon edition (1492) of Isaiah and Jeremiah, the latter two based on Spanish MSS., as well as a Spanish parchment codex on Joshua, Judges and Samuel, a second MS. of Samuel, a MS. of the Latter Prophets, written in Spain (1462) by a French exile from Corbeil, and a second MS. on the Minor Prophets offer ample material for a good edition of these excellent commentaries. A study of the Targum quotations in these books based on this material and compared with our editions would equally prove a welcome addition to our Targum studies. The commentary on Job ascribed by one of the owners of the codex to the same author ought to be studied and compared with other works of the French school, especially with MS. Paris 207, with which it has many points in common. I further mention the unique copy of Josef ibn Shoshan's commentary on the Song of Songs, the fragment of an unknown Tosafistic commentary on Numbers and some exegetical works of the Karaites like Jefet ben i The Targum of this edition also deserves to be examined. It con- tains e. g. in the Song of Deborah three Toseftas which are found only in Haftara-MSS. from Yemen. 222 STUDENTS' ANNUAL All on the Minor Prophets or the anonymous commentator of Deuteronomy, of whose work only the modern copy in the British Museum (Cat. Margoliouth nr. 334), of which ours is the original, has been known up till now. For Midrash our copy of Aggadat Shir ha-Shirim and Midrash Zuta to Euth certainly ought to he edited, as it is by far superior to the Parma MS. on which the previous editions were based. Our considerably large Mishna fragment of the eleventh century ought to be examined for its text as well as its vocalisation. For the latter the Vatican MS. of Sifra, with its superlinear punctua- tion would probably yield most interesting and valuable results; we possess a photograph of this important old codex. While we only have small MS. fragments of the text of the Talmud, our Library is in possession of an almost complete copy of the first Venice edition, of eight treatises of the earlier Soncino texts, and of the recent facsimile editions of the complete Munich MS. and the Hamburg MS. of Nezikin. The importance of the latter is proved by the fact that it is one of the very few Spanish Talmud MSS. 2 which have come down to us. To this group also belongs the lately discovered Fez edition of the Talmud. We have a unique copy of the first half of Rosh ha-Shana which ought to be carefully examined and compared with the other texts. Besides these indis- pensable materials for the criticism of the text of the Talmud, our Library is very rich in old commentaries of the Talmud, many of which deserve publication or at least careful examination. This is even more so the case with our very valuable codes which could serve to correct in many details books like the Mordekai, Orhot Hayyim, Rebtenu Yeroham and others which are the sources for a great part of our literary history. The unique copy of the fourth part of David Kokabis Sefer ha-Battim deserves to be edited, the little known and rare Sefer ha Neyar (Book of Paper), written on the margin of a French prayerbook ought to be elaborately de- scribed. The remarkable MSS. of the Maharil ought to be studied thoroughly and would certainly pay for the trouble. The MS. of the Manhig could fill the gaps of the current edition and add to our information about the different rituals. 2 It shows, however, frequent corrections from German and Italian hands. 223 For the study of the latter our particularly rich liturgical col- lection both in MSS. and rare prints offers unusual facilities. A good description of the various rites, both as to their Stammgebete and the Piutim, contained in them, would indeed fill a long-felt need ; Zunz's masterly treatment in his "Ritus" is all too short and very difficult to follow for those who have not access to all these partly very rare works, and the lists of Piutim would help to eliminate the worst drawback of Zunz's "LiteraturgescJiichte der synagogalenPoesie" the lack of indications as to the sources in which the poems recorded by him are to be found. The rite of Eomania, e. g., of which so few copies have come down to us would very well lend itself to such a monograph; that of Avignon and Carpentras, described by Zunz on the basis of the inadequate material accessible to him in 1838, is represented by a complete set of all published texts and of several MSS. The exceedingly rare Machzorim of the Arragon and Catalonia communities of Salonica ought to be studied and their first editions compared with their reproductions in the last century, so as to show the strong influence the Kab- bala has exerted on them since that period; likewise a collation of the Roman and German rituals in the MSS. and numerous editions from different periods which are accessible here would yield valu- able results. The different North-African rituals would have to be taken up together as they are so closely related to one another ; only on close examination a decision as to the relationship of some of the MSS. of this group will be possible. The unpublished Mach- zorim of rites like those of Northern France, Corfu, or Asti, Fos- sano and Moncalvo should be particularly interesting for special discussion. A series of monographs of this kind undertaken by a number of our students according to a uniform system would cer- tainly form an important contribution to Jewish learning and would at the same time be most instructive for those who would undertake this task. There are a good many more liturgical MSS. which invite a closer investigation. There is the old copy of the Machzor Vitry which is free from the numberless additions of the edition and therefore indispensable for an examination of the in- fluence of R. Simchah of Vitry's work on our liturgy. There is also the curious Tosafistic commentary on the German Machzor briefly described by Gross, of which at least large speciments ought to be 224 STUDENTS' ANNUAL printed. There are the numberless rituals for special occasions both printed and inedited, which offer frequently an historical interest or are remarkable proofs of the patriotism and loyalty of the Jews. From liturgy we naturally turn to poetry a large part of which is likewise religious. In this branch the little known school of North-African poets is represented by a considerable number of large colections of poems ; several other extensive volumes of poetic works come from the Orient and will no doubt when closely studied equally enrich our knowledge of the history of Hebrew poetry. Of Israel Nagara's unpublished collection Shearit Israel we have seven MSS. which Prof. Davidson has copied for publication. Immanuel Bonn's Mahberoth can be corrected in many places from our in- complete MS., and a second one containing the first four chapters, the latter curiously enough being followed by a code. In our rich Kabbalistic collection the old mystical works of the Geonic period like the Hekhalot and the Shiur Eoma are found in good texts which deserve publication; a MS. of the former is par- ticularly noteworthy, as it has the numbers of the chapters from twenty to twenty-nine in Greek, written of course in Hebrew char- acters, by a German scribe, while ultimately no doubt going back to a Greek copyist. The MS. is divided in thirty-six chapters, differ- ing also in this respect from the other versions. Another book which lends itself to an interesting monograph is Shemtob's Sefer Emunot with its numerous remarkable quotations from the old mystics, genuine and falsified ones ; as the only edition of this book is very corrupt, our old MS. ought to be consulted for such a study. Moses Botarel's handbook of practical Kabbala probably would be worth a thorough study; of Jochanan Alemanno's rare Ene Haeda two good MSS. invite an examination which would supplement the information about this remarkable author brought together by Steinschneider and Perles. Partly to this group belongs the theo- logical work Arbaa Kinyanim by Juda ben Solomon, a pupil of the famous Talmudist E. Jomtob ben Abraham of Seville, whose de- fective Sefer Zilckwron, a defense of Maimonides' philosophy against the attacks of Nachmanides, is frequently quoted; possibly these quotations may supplement some of the missing parts of that work. Ldpmann of Muehlhausen, the well-known author of the polemical Sefer Nizzachon, of which we also have a MS., wrote a mystical commentary on parts of Maimonides "Guide of the Perplexed," of WHAT OUR LIBRARY OFFERS TO OUR STUDENTS 225 which hardly anything is known; we have the only copy of that book of the South-German author, whose work found its way to Aleppo and thence to our Library, a curious example of the wan- derings of the Jews and their books. Among polemical literature several books are of considerable interest, such as the little known criticism of the New Testament by Juda Brieli, who is famous as an opponent of the dangerous activity of Nehemiah Hayyon, or the Asham Talui, of his pupil Joshua Segre, or from earler times Shemtob Shaprut's Eb en Bohan, including the oldest Hebrew translation of the Gospel in its last part. Of the latter, we possess two MSS., while we also have two MSS. of the complete work. Moses de Tordesillas' Ezer Jia-Emuna, which is found in our library in three copies, and Abraham Farisol's Mag en Abraham also deserve fuller treatment than has been accorded to them heretofore. Mathematical and astronomical texts might perhaps not be very attractive for students, but many of our books in this line would lend themselves to an interesting investigation, such as the Judeo-Spanish text of Abraham Zacut's astronomical tables which served Columbus so well, or Maimonides' medical aphorisms. The two MSS. of the latter would greatly correct the poorly printed edition which also omits the sources. Of the philosopher Moses Narboni's rare medical work Orach Hayyim our two MSS. offer two quite different versions. For historical research our collections offer particularly rich material for Italy, both in printed books and MSS. We have sev- eral inedited Responsa collections, a number of account books from the 18th century from Mantua, Ferrara and other communities, small occasional writings which in prose or in verse contain ac- counts of little known local events and other important texts. In this conection I might also mention Maimonides' Arabic letter to Yemen and some other of his epistles of which no copy but that of our Library is known. These are being edited by Prof. Fried- laender. Of Arabic texts we have Maimonides' Mishna commentary to three orders, only parts of which have been published in a large number of German and Hungarian doctor dissertations, several im- portant Karaitic works of an exegetical and philosophic character, unknown translations of the Bible, and others. 226 STUDENTS' ANNUAL Our collection of about 700 Haggadas, as well as that of our beautiful Italian Ketuboth, could be used for an interesting article on illustrations of Hebrew books at different periods. With our rich treasures of rare prints the filiation of the printers types might be traced and an interesting chapter be added to the history of Hebrew typography, for which Steinschneider's hand copies of his own works with his innumerable additions offer unique sources of information. Altogether the marginal notes in the books of this most eminent scholar are of incomparable value for every subject in which he was interested, as his critical pen marked every doubt- ful statement, and very often by a valuable reference leads the way to further research on the subject. In many of Halberstam's and Kautzsch's books such marginal notes will also be found to be of great help. I am afraid my article has grown to undue proportions, and the enumeration of all these topics might sound tedious. At all events, the subject cannot be exhausted in a short article, and in the above the examples from the different branches of Jewish literature have been selected at random and could just as well be substituted by others. Subjects requiring special prepara- tion and extended researches have as a rule been left out of con- sideration. My only aim was to give our students an idea of the numerous and manifold topics in which they can find material for useful work in our library. UNV. UK CALIF. LlbKARY, LOS ANGELES