Yeshiva University Discovers 7,000 Microfilm Plates of Talmudic Notes

The establishment of a Talmudic Reserach Institute at Yeshiva University to edit and publish 7,000 tiny two-inch square microfilm plates of Talmudic literature smuggled out of Nazi-dominated Europe over a decade ago, and discovered last month in the United States, was announced here today by Dr. Samuel Belkin, president of the University.

The newly found manuscripts, the only extant copy of the “Commentaries” of the Gaon of Rogasbov, represented the most important addition to Talmudic literature in modern times, Dr. Belkin stated. Rabbi Menahem Kasher, prominent editor of Biblical texts and author of works on Hebrew subjects, has been appointed head of the Institute. The project is being made possible by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

Joseph Rosen, Rabbi of Dvinsk, in Latvia, (1858-1936) and called the “Gaon” or genius of Rogashov, after the city of his birth, was one of the most unique and brilliant figures in the history of Rabbinics. Possessed of an encyclopedic mind, the Rogashov Gaon could literally reel off volumes from memory, as scholars who knew him have testified. It was said that he was his own library.

The Gaon of Rogashov died in 1936 at the age of 78, after having served the city of Dvinsk for forty-seven years. He left behind him a monumental four-volume analysis of the works of Maimonides entitled “Tsofnath Pa-aneach” (The Explanation of the Hidden) and a large body of response, replies to questions on Jewish law. His greatest achievement, however, were his “Commentaries.”

Rabbi Israel Alter Saffran-Fuchs, successor to the Gaon in the Dvinsk rabbinate, found the document among the unpublished papers of his predecessor. It was in the form of marginal annotations on the texts of the Babylonian Talmud, the Jerusalem Talmud, plus notes on a vast body of Jewish law. In all, the work consisted of 7,000 pages. Faced by the mounting Nazi terror, Rabbi Saffran-Fuchs engaged in a desperate race against time to preserve the manuscript.

Photographing it page by page, he mailed it out piecewise in small packages to his cousin, H. Saffran, in the United States. He managed to complete the job before the Nazifires reached their full fury. In the holocaust that followed, Rabbi Saffran-Fuchs and his family, the descendants of the Gaon, and the inhabitants of Dvinsk all perished. For twelve years the existence of the manuscript was unknown here. When it came to the attention of Dr. Kasher, he brought it to Dr. Belkin at Yeshiva University, and the project for its publication was formed.