Leḥem Yehudah (The Bread of Judah): On the Fate of the First Edition

Judah Lerma

1554

I printed my book [Leḥem Yehudah] in Venice at the beginning of for the Almighty Shadai [in gematria = 1553] has dealt very bitterly with me (Ruth 1:20) and the ruler of Rome [the Pope] decreed that throughout the kingdoms of Edom should be burned and they burned the Talmud and the aggadot of the Talmud of R. Jacob ben Habib. In Venice, in the month of Marheshvan [bitter Heshvan], which is as its name, it was decreed that the Talmud, the aggadot mentioned above, and Rav Alfasi and mishnayot should be burned on the Holy Shabbat, and with them they burned all of my books, of which 1,500 copies had been printed. I lost all that was in Venice and not even a single copy remained to me, not even a single leaf from the original for a remembrance. I was forced to rewrite [my book] from memory from the beginning. After I had completed three chapters, I found one copy from the original press in the hands of non-Jews who had saved it from the fire. I acquired it at a dear price, and when I looked into it, may His name be blessed, I saw that the second [copy] was more complete than the first.

 

Translated by

Marvin J. 
Heller.

 

Notes

Words in brackets appear in the original translation.

Credits

Judah Lerma, “Introduction” to Leḥem Yehudah [The Bread of Judah], trans. Marvin J. Heller, excerpted from Marvin J. Heller, “Unicums, Fragments, and Other Hebrew Book Rarities,” Judaica Librarianship, vol. 18, no. 1 (2014), pp. 143–44, https://doi.org/10.14263/2330-2976.1036. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. The authors are the copyright holders of articles published by Judaica Librarianship.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.

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Creator Bio

Judah Lerma

16th Century

Judah Lerma, of Spanish origin, lived in Italy in the mid-sixteenth century. He wrote a philosophical commentary on Pirke Avot, 1,500 copies of which were printed in Venice in 1553. However, in that same year almost all copies were destroyed when the Talmud and other Jewish books were burned in Venice. Judah, who never held a rabbinic post, set about rewriting his work from memory. He later found one surviving copy in the possession of non-Jews and was able to acquire it. The second edition of the work, which exhibits significant differences, was printed in Sabbioneta in 1554. The commentary draws on the Talmud and midrash, as well as on the works of Maimonides, Joseph Albo, Isaac Abravanel, and Isaac Arama, and it also integrates the author’s original ideas. In addition, Judah composed a commentary on Job, which is mentioned in his commentary on m. Avot. Other fragments of his writings have survived in manuscripts.

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