Avnei Yehoshua, Joshua Falk, New York: 1860

Estimate

6,000 - 8,000 USD

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Description

paper

108 pages (7 x 4 3/4 in.; 178 x 120 mm). Some foxing; lightly stained. Modern black buckram, gilt-stamped boards and spine, original endpapers preserved; bottom margin and hole at center of front free endpaper neatly repaired.

Literature

Vinograd, New York 53; Deinard, Koheleth America 4; Singerman 1653; Goldman, Hebrew Printing in America, #688.

Catalogue Note

THE FIRST RABBINIC WORK PUBLISHED IN THE UNITED STATES

This commentary on the Ethics of the Fathers is the first book written in Hebrew (other than the Bible or liturgies) to be published in America. Its author, Joshua ben Mordecai Falk, came to America in 1858. Originally planning a comprehensive work called Binyan Yehoshua (House of Joshua) Falk met with little success in obtaining subscribers. Falk followed the advice of New York's most prominent rabbi, Morris J. Raphall, to begin by printing a portion of the larger work. The book's unique typographical feel resulted from the use of the Hebrew fonts of the weekly periodical "The Jewish Messenger," in whose New York offices the book was printed.

The import of this pioneering effort was recognized by the author, who implored the public to purchase the book in order to prove that Jewish scholarly works could indeed find an audience in an America which was at the time, still considered to be ignorant of Jewish scholarship.