To the Readers (of Yerushalayim)

As I was completing the first volume of this book of ours, I was on my way to Vienna, and the late scholar, Mr. [Peretz] Smolenskin of blessed memory, in his desire to complete the printing, wrote some words in my name as an introduction to the book, though its purpose, necessity, and idea were never made clear enough. Aside from this, we must apologize to our readers because, to our heart’s distress, and not by any fault of our own, the publication has been delayed for so long. Hence, we intend to say a few things to them about the usefulness of this book, its purpose, and its matter.

Everyone who loves his people and his land will understand how great the need is for such a book, whose subject, and all of its articles, are devoted to knowledge of and research about the land, the inheritance of our forefathers. And if at all times such a book was needed, so much more so is it necessary and useful at this time, a time when the scholars and researchers of all nations, each in their own language, are engaged in research about this land, trying to increase and reinforce its study without cease. Just twenty-one years ago in Britain, the Palestine Exploration Fund (Ḥakirat erets pleshet) was established. Every member must pay one-pound sterling per year, and a journal containing scientific articles on this subject is published quarterly. Additionally, the society periodically sends cartographers and researchers to survey and measure the land according to its regions. It periodically prints new and precise maps of the land, and its activities are valued and respected highly by the entire nation; Queen Victoria herself is proud to be called a patron of the society.

The Germans, who have special publications about research of oriental lands, most of whose scholars also understand English, nevertheless were not satisfied with this, and they competed to emulate the accomplishments of the English. So ten years ago they established the German Society for the Exploration of Palestine (Verein zur Erforschung Palestinas), which produces a quarterly publication, and all the great, wise, and respected people of this land take part in it. Every member annually gives ten marks to the treasury of the society, as well as sizable contributions to its foundation. This is what the gentiles of every nation do, and they already have thousands of books (without exaggeration) on this subject, which, if we were simply to list just their numbers according to languages and subjects, would constitute a long article. Only we, whose bond of love and relationship with this land is ancient and far stronger than the connections of those other nations, have until now stood at the sideline, and the number of our books on this topic are so few that even a child could count them. Therefore, every one of us must value this project, which we have now taken upon our shoulders, when love for the Holy Land has begun to send its tendrils to the hearts of our brethren dispersed at all ends of the earth. All eyes are fixed upon the land of their ancestral heritage to see and observe everything that is being done and every movement made in it. At a time when the question of the Holy Land has been placed on the agenda of the wealthy leaders of our people, at such a time is it not necessary or required for there to be a volume, which will be published periodically by one of the residents of the Holy Land and will contain within it accurate studies of the regions of the country and its antiquities, reliable information about the situation of our brethren who dwelt there in the past and those who do so in the present? Only thereby can we pay our debt to our elderly mother, and let the gentiles no longer say of us: the Jews have no homeland. [ . . . ]

The publisher.

Subjects of Articles that May Enter the Gates of Yerushalayim

A. Regions of the Country: their boundaries, their subdivisions, and the regions of neighboring countries. Also the state and character of each of the known cities in it, in all geographic aspects and divisions, accompanied by a map of the country and illustrations that will help to make the article understandable.

B. History: everything that has happened in the Holy Land from the time Israel ceased to be a nation, until the present, with special attention paid to the history of our brethren in all the cities that they settled in from then until today.

C. Research in Antiquity: everything that is significant in the history of the country and its inhabitants.

D. Plan of the Temples: inside and outside, and all its vessels.

E. Exegesis: Scripture and the words of our sages, which bear upon the four previous topics.

F. Commandments Dependent upon the Land: their definitions, types, laws, and developments from the time of the sages of the Mishnah until today, accompanied by practical halakhic rulings by the rabbis who sit in judgment.