Rabbi Solomon Aaron Wertheimer (November 18, 1866 – 1935), was a

Hungarian Hungarian may refer to: * Hungary, a country in Central Europe * Kingdom of Hungary, state of Hungary, existing between 1000 and 1946 * Hungarians, ethnic groups in Hungary * Hungarian algorithm, a polynomial time algorithm for solving the assignme ...

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

, scholar, and seller of rare books.

Life

He was born in

Bösing Pezinok (; hu, Bazin; german: Bösing; lat, Bazinium) is a town in southwestern Slovakia. It is roughly northeast of Bratislava and, as of December 2018, had a population of 23,002. Pezinok lies near the Little Carpathians and thrives mainly ...

in 1866. In 1871 he went with his parents to

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

, where he was educated. By 1890, he was residing in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo met ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Med ...

, where he made a living as a rare bookseller and a collector and seller of

Cairo Genizah The Cairo Geniza, alternatively spelled Genizah, is a collection of some 400,000 Jewish manuscript fragments and Fatimid administrative documents that were kept in the '' genizah'' or storeroom of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat or Old Cairo, E ...

documents. According to

Arabist An Arabist is someone, often but not always from outside the Arab world, who specialises in the study of the Arabic language and culture (usually including Arabic literature). Origins Arabists began in medieval Muslim Spain, which lay on the ...

S.D. Goitein Shelomo Dov Goitein (April 3, 1900 – February 6, 1985) was a German-Jewish ethnographer, historian and Arabist known for his research on Jewish life in the Islamic Middle Ages, and particularly on the Cairo Geniza. Biography Shelomo Dov (Frit ...

, he also published papers on them, but "in a somewhat unscientific way."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 For five years starting in 1893, he tried to sell the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the Briti ...

Geniza documents for pennies on the dollar, but many were declined.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. 7
google books preview
/ref> 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 Adolf Jellinek ( he, אהרן ילינק ''Aharon Jelinek''; 26 June 1821 in Drslavice, Moravia – 28 December 1893 in Vienna) was an Austrian rabbi and scholar. After filling clerical posts in Leipzig (1845–1856), he became a preacher at t ...

's ''Bet Ha-Midrasch''). He died in Jerusalem in 1935.

Publications

*''Ebel Mosheh'' (1885),

sermon A sermon is a religious discourse or oration by a preacher, usually a member of clergy. Sermons address a scriptural, theological, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law, or behavior within both past and present contexts. E ...

delivered on the death of Sir

Moses Montefiore Sir Moses Haim Montefiore, 1st Baronet, (24 October 1784 – 28 July 1885) was a British financier and banker, activist, philanthropist and Sheriff of London. Born to an Italian Sephardic Jewish family based in London, afte ...

*''Ḥiddushe Rabbi Nissim'' (1888) * ''Pirḳe Hekalot'' and ''Ẓawwa'at Naftali'' (1889) * ''Darke shel

Torah The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the s ...

'' (1891), guide to the theory of the

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

and to the fundamental principles of the

Halakah ''Halakha'' (; he, הֲלָכָה, ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws which is derived from the written and Oral Torah. Halakha is based on biblical comm ...

and

Haggadah The Haggadah ( he, הַגָּדָה, "telling"; plural: Haggadot) is a Jewish text that sets forth the order of the Passover Seder. According to Jewish practice, reading the Haggadah at the Seder table is a fulfillment of the mitzvah to each J ...

* ''Ḥatam Sofer'' (1891), Talmudic studies, with notes; ''Batte Midrashot'' (4 parts, 1893-97), a collection of short ''

midrash ''Midrash'' (;"midrash"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. he, מִדְרָשׁ; ...

im'' 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 ''Geonim'' ( he, גאונים; ; also transliterated Gaonim, singular Gaon) were the presidents of the two great Babylonian Talmudic Academies of Sura and Pumbedita, in the Abbasid Caliphate, and were the generally accepted spiritual leaders o ...

'' 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 Isaiah ben Elijah di Trani (the Younger) ( Hebrew: ישעיה בן אליהו דטראני) was an Italian Talmudist and commentator who lived in the 13th century. He was the grandson, on his mother's side, of Isaiah (ben Mali) di Trani the El ...

'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

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wertheimer Hungarian Jews Hungarian rabbis 1866 births 1935 deaths People from Pezinok