Nathan Hannover

1610–1683

Nathan Hannover was a chronicler, talmudist, and kabbalist. He is thought to have been born in Ostrońg in Volhynia, where he studied at the local yeshiva. After marriage, he settled in Zaław in Ukraine; during the 1648 uprising he was forced to flee and ended up traveling through Germany, Holland, and Italy. Hannover is chiefly known for Yeven metsulah (Abyss of Despair), printed in Venice in 1653, which describes the course of the Khmel’nyts’kyi uprising in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The book, written in Hebrew, was based mainly on oral testimonies.

Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator

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Yeven metsulah (Abyss of Despair)

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The Oppressor Chmiel, may his name be blotted out, heard that many Jews had gathered in the holy community of Nemirow, and that they had a great deal of…

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Ta‘ame sukkah (Discourse on Sukkot): Account of His Printing Problems

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And in it they will find a commentary appropriate to everyone and in it many precious midrashim, sharp pilpulim, light and weighty, Sinai and uprooter of mountains (Berakhot 64a, that is both breadth…