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Bidding Information
Lot #    8319
Auction End Date    10/19/2004 11:26:00 AM (mm/dd/yyyy)
          
Title Information
Title (English)    Al ha-Milah
Title (Hebrew)    על המילה
Author    [Only Ed.] R. Judah Leib ben Menahem Mendel Speir
City    Lublin
Publisher    Solomon Spira
Publication Date    1909
          
Collection Information
Independent Item    This listing is an independent item not part of any collection
          
Description Information
Physical
Description		    Only edition. [2], 17, [1] pp., 100:69 mm., light age staining. A very good copy bound in contemporary boards.
          
Detailed
Description		    Essay on brit milah and resolution of a vexing problem by R. Judah Leib ben Menahem Mendel Speir. The pamphlet is bound with its original front greenish wrapper which has the same text as the Hebrew portion of the title page. They state that Al ha-Milah is thoughts (meditations) of the heart of a Jewish man concerning the question of milah which have arisen recently and various responses to them. Below the Hebrew text is publication information in Cyrillic letters. The author’s name does not appear on the title page but can be found at the end of the book. The verso of the title page has three quotes, the first from Ben ha-Melekh ve-ha-Nazir which begins, “seek wisdom and do not look at appearances,” the second from R. Moses Hagiz’s Mishnat Hakhamim, and the third, in German, is described as S. Philosophicles von L. Dukes. There is an introduction from the author in which he relates that an uncircumcised child, ten months old, died and the bet din would not allow him to be buried in a Jewish cemetery while still uncircumcised. Rather the child had to first be circumcised in accordance with Jewish tradition in such circumstances. This incident was reported in newspapers and caused a serious division within the Jewish community. R. Speir seeks a resolution to the questions raised by this incident in the Talmud and poskim in Al ha-Milah.

The text is in a single column in square letters accompanied by footnotes that are in rabbinic letters. Pages are bound out of order in the middle of the volume. Al ha-Milah is a clearly written, scholarly, and engrossing discussion of sources on this problem, with a well argued solution at the conclusion of the text. There is a page of errata.
          
Paragraph 2    הגיון לב איש יהודי בדבר שאלת המילה שנתנה זה מקרוב ענין רב למפלגות רבות לענות בו ([מאת] יהודה ליבוש שפער).
          
Reference
Description		    BE ayin 658; CD-EPI 0171648
        
Associated Images
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Listing Classification
Period
20th Century:    Checked
  
Location
Russia-Poland:    Checked
  
Subject
Halacha:    Checked
Responsa:    Checked
  
Characteristic
First Editions:    Checked
Language:    Hebrew
  
Manuscript Type
  
Kind of Judaica