This book was one of several ambitious publishing attempts by London Chassidic Rabbi Joseph Shaposhnick.
Rabbi Joseph Shaposhnick (Shapotshnick) was eventually to become, after he emigrated to London, a controversial and divisive rabbi in the rabbinical world. He was born in Kishinev in 1882 and in 1902, when he was just 20 years old, long before the controversies, the young prodigy had his first book published in Odessa.
As I have written before, Rabbi Joseph Shaposhnick was like Marmite – you either loved him or hated him. He came to London in 1913 and settled in the East End, where he soon became a well-known chassidic figure and social activist. He was already a published author in Europe, and when he came to London became amazingly prolific.
Rabbi Shaposhnick was brilliant, well-meaning, flawed and ultimately discredited in the eyes of the Charedi (Orthodox Jewish) community to which he belonged. You can read more about him in Rabbi Pini Dunner’s excellent essay, entitled Rebel Rabbi of London.
Rabbi Shaposhnick planned to arrange and print a new edition of the Babylonian Talmud that would contain all known commentaries in the world. This idea sparked much interest and approbations from rabbinic leaders of the generation, but it was not a practical proposal and he only managed to print this one volume, entirely dedicated to the first leaf of Tractate Berachot . Even in this single volume, many commentaries noted on the title page were not printed.
This was the first and only volume, printed in 1921, a remnant of one of the most fascinating and grandiose projects of Hebrew publishing.
It has an original spectacular binding printed with red ink, with artwork by Rabbi Shaposhnick. The entire picture is printed again on a special page within the book. There is a micrograph of the word berachot on the second title page, made up of a list of the Tana’aim and Amoraim who transmitted the tradition.
The book has several remarkable pages of prenumeranten – subscriber and donation lists – arranged in artistic formats. These include both names and the amounts subscribed. Some of these amounts subscribed or donated to support the project are quite significant. 100 pounds in 1921 is equivalent to over 6,000 pounds today.
The donations show support from both Scandinavia and Great Britain.
One substantial donor was Rabbi Sholom Yitzchak Levitan (1878–1941), who served as the rabbi and Av Beis Din (head of the rabbinical court) of Oslo, Norway (then known as Christiana). He was a recognized Torah scholar, the author of several books including Divrei Shalom and Sukkat Shalom Yitzchak. He was murdered in the Holocaust. The donation names his wife, Rebbetzin Chaya Rochel, His father, David, his wife’s parents, Benjamin the son of Moshe and Menucha Etil the daughter of Shlomo of Ragole. Another Oslo donation is from Meir Fishel Dickman and his wife Beila.
There is a donation of three pounds from Rabbi Ezekiel Isidore Epstein, who was then the Rabbi of the Middlesborough Hebrew Congregation, but was destined to become the Principal of Jews College from 1945 to 1961 and the editor of the complete English translation of the Talmud (the Soncino Talmud).
There are donations from Newcastle, Birmingham and Sheffield. These include ten pounds from Rabbi Mordechai Isaac Levin Epstein, the communal Rav of Sheffield, and three pounds from the Chazan of the Sheffield Central Hebrew Congregation, Rev. Abraham Warshavsky.
Jewish Miscellanies 