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Other Editions of the Jerusalem Talmud chapter 19 Other Editions of the Jerusalem Talmud The editio princeps of the Jerusalem Talmud—the other result, Shekalim has more commentaries than any other Talmud, that of the sages of Eretz Israel—was first printed tractate in the Jerusalem Talmud.1 in Venice in 1522–1523 by Daniel Bomberg, who also printed the first complete Babylonian Talmud (1519–1523). Not studied as frequently as the Babylonian Talmud, the 1 Eighteenth-Century Editions of the Jerusalem Jerusalem Talmud also was printed less frequently, the Talmud Prior to 1750 second edition of that Talmud not being published until 1609 in Cracow by Isaac ben Aaron Prostitz. Also referred The Talmudic orders of the Jerusalem Talmud imprints to as the Palestinian Talmud, or Talmud de-Eretz Yisrael, were issued in several locations in our period from the several individual tractates or entire sedarim (orders) mid-seventeenth to the beginning of the eighteenth cen- were printed in the period under consideration in this tury. Shekalim was issued twice in our first period, once work. In Chapter 7, “Frankfurt on the Main: 1720–1722,” together with Seder Zera’im and once as an individual trac- I mentioned the folio volume of the Jerusalem Talmud tate. The remaining Jerusalem Talmud imprints consist of tractates Bava Kamma, Bava Metzia, and Bava Batra, of two editions of Seder Mo’ed, one each of Nashim and accompanied by the commentary of R. Elijah ben Judah Nezikin, two editions of Bava Kamma and Bava Metzia, Leib Fulda (c. 1650/60–c. 1720), printed in Frankfurt on the and one edition with Bava Batra. Notably, none of these Main in the year “[And Pharaoh said unto his servants:] editions is of a complete Talmud. The first printing of the Jerusalem Talmud for the הנמצא can we find such a one as this, a man in whom the spirit of God is?” period under discussion was in Constantinople. In two (1742 = 502) רוח אלהים כזה איש אשר (Genesis 41:38). parts, it is noteworthy for the accompanying commentary With the exception of Seder Nashim with the two- Sedeh Yehoshu’a on eighteen tractates of the Jerusalem part commentary Penei Moshe and Mareh ha-Panim by Talmud by R. Joshua Raphael ben Israel Benveniste (d. c. R. Moses Margoliot (Amsterdam, 1754) and Seder Nezikin, 1667–68).2 He was the brother of R. Hayyim Benveniste also with Penei Moshe and Mareh ha-Panim (Livorno, (Keneset ha-Gedolah). Joshua Benveniste trained as a 1770), described in the two previous chapters, I addressed physician, a profession he did not practice. He served as the other tractates or orders of the Jerusalem Talmud of rabbi in Constantinople and has been described as one of our period in detail in Printing the Talmud: A History of the the leading talmudists of Turkey. He was also the author Individual Treatises Printed from 1700 to 1750. This chapter, of several other works, among them responsa and poetry for the sake of completeness, serves as a brief summary of that remain in manuscript. those other editions with a few additions, both to those The two partial printings of Sedeh Yehoshu’a are separated editions and to later publications of tractates from the by more than three-quarters of a century. The first part, a Jerusalem Talmud. small-folio volume, was printed by Abraham ben Jedidiah Several editions of parts of the Jerusalem Talmud, and Gabbai and dated Monday, 13 Elul, “And let them make me .(August 28, 1662) a sanctuary” (Exodus 25:8 = 422) ועשו לי ,of tractate Shekalim in particular, were printed after 1750 and were not, therefore, addressed in Printing the Talmud. This commentary, the only part of Sedeh Yehoshu’a The following discussion consists of summary descrip- printed in Benveniste’s lifetime, covers only five tractates tions of the orders or tractates in the first period, that is of Seder Zera’im, namely, Berakhot, Pe’ah, Orlah, Hallah, until slightly after 1750 (1757), followed by a separate sec- tion addressing the later printings. Parenthetically, Shekalim, alone of the twelve tractates in Seder Mo’ed, is the only tractate not represented in 1 Yaakov Shulman, tran., Tractate Shekalim of the Jerusalem Talmud: The Complete Text and Classical Commentaries, with an the Babylonian Talmud. However, for more than a thou- Accompanying Translation and Commentary in English (New York, sand years—since the times of the geonim—it has been 1991), [12]. included in the study of the Babylonian Talmud. As a 2 Heller, Individual Treatises, 333–44. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004376731_021 262 chapter 19 and Bikkurim.3 The text omits aggadic subject matter. The title page states that [i]t is a commentary to a number of tractates of the Jerusalem Talmud, on that portion which deals with the laws explained both as for the subject matter and its development by the great guide, the excel- lent judge, a descendant of distinguished stock, R. JOSHUA BENVENISTE, and since the work was lengthy, as he wrote on the majority of the tractates of the Jerusalem [Talmud], with almost thirty trac- tates in the possession of the author. And there was a treasure hidden in his tent. However, due to the troubles at this time it was possible to bring to press only these few [tractates] that were before him, in order to begin the mitzvah. Perhaps, with the grace of the Lord of Hosts and with this merit he will be able to complete the remainder to benefit the public and it will be considered for him and for us as righ- teousness, God willing. On the title page is the famed three-crown device, first used by the Venetian printer Aluise Bragdine (1550–54 and 1564–75), subsequently acquired by the Gabbai press in Livorno, and employed by them in two other locations, Izmir and Constantinople.4 Another device figure 19.1 used previously is a mount (hill) standing in the midst of a sea; to the left is an eagle, and above the hill is a “strange laurel.”5 This volume is Gabbai’s only use of this mark in Constantinople.6 There is an introduction from Benveniste, in which he explains his reasons for writing Sedeh Yehoshu’a (see below). The second part of Sedeh Yehoshu’a was published by Reuben and Nissan Ashkenazi in the year “‘Let the field Chronicles 1) ”(1749 = 509[5] = 514) יעלץ השדה לפ"ג exult 16:32) at the press founded in 1710 by their father, Jonah ben Jacob Ashkenazi. This print-shop was operated by three generations of the Ashkenazi family, who contin- ued to print Hebrew works until 1778, issuing almost two hundred works, and at one time employing as many as fifty workers. This edition of Sedeh Yehoshu’a, in contrast 3 Yaari, Hebrew Printing at Constantinople [Hebrew] (Jerusalem, 1967), 154–55n257a. 4 Yaari, Printers’ Marks, 12, 131n18. 5 Ibid., 23, 137n36. 6 Concerning the Gabbai presses in Livorno and Izmir, see, respec- tively, Marvin J. Heller, “Jedidiah ben Isaac Gabbai and the First Decade of Hebrew Printing in Livorno,” Los Muestros, pt. 1, no. 33 (1998): 40–41; pt. 2, no. 34 (1999): 28–30, reprinted in Studies, 165–77; and Heller “Kaf Nahat and Hebrew Printing in Izmir,” Los Muestros, pt. 1, no. 75 (2009): 7–8; pt. 2, no. 76 (2009): 7–8; pt. 3, no. 77 (2009): 7–8, reprinted in Further Studies, 103–15. figure 19.2.
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