Chidushei HaRitba, – Copy of Rabbi Dov Ber Duschinsky, Prague, 1810

While it is always nice to have a book that is over 200 years old, the slight Anglo-Jewish connection of this one is because of it’s previous owner.

The book itself consists of important novellae (Chidushim) on tractate Eruvin of the Talmud.  These were written by Rabbi Yom Tov ben Avraham Ishbile (known as Ritba), who lived from about 1250 to 1330 CE.  He is considered among the great Sephardic Talmudic sages.  These novellae are are very rich in early source material, Tosaphistic, Spanish, Provencal and Geonic.

I have previously written about Charles (Yaakov Koppel) Duschinsky, who had emigrated to England and was best known as the author of a book, “The Rabbinate of the Great Synagogue”, about the Rabbi’s of the Great Synagogue which stood in Duke’s Place, London.

A previous owner of this book was his father, Rabbi Dov Ber Duschinsky. 

Rabbi Dov Ber Duschinsky (1837-1922) was an important follower of the Ksav Sofer.  His children included Rabbi Dr. Charles (Yaakov Koppel) Duschinsky, as I have mentioned, and Rabbi Yechiel Michel Duschinsky, Av Beis Din (Head of the Rabbinical Court) of Rakospalota.

Rabbi Dov Ber Duschinsky was the Av Beis Din of Nameszto. From the age of 16 he studied for six years with Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Binyomin Schreiber (known as the Ksav Sofer) at the Pressburg Yeshiva. He married the grand-daughter of Rabbi Koppel Charif.

My copy has an interesting inscription, stating that it was given to Dov Ber Duschinsky for his Barmitzvah from Rabbi Shimon Sidon of Nadash.

Rabbi Shimon Sidon was a Hungarian rabbi; born at Nadash on 24 January 1815 (13 Shevat 5575). He died at Trnava on 20 December 1891 (19 Kislev 5652).  At age thirteen in 1829, Sidon entered the Yeshiva of the Chasam Sofer and studied there for nine years until 1838.  In 1838 he returned home and married Rachel Duschinsky who was also from his hometown Nadash. In 1856, he was appointed as rabbi of the newly founded Jewish community of Trnava, where he died in 1891.

Rabbi Dov Ber Duschinsky’s great-great-grandson is David Pinto-Duschinsky, who was elected Member of Parliament for Hendon, in north-west London, on July 4th 2024.