the eruv in Odesa

Correspondence and discussions about the 'eruv' in the town of Odesa.

Chaim Alexander Ziskind Tchernowitz ((1871-1949 aka 'Rav Tzair') was an Odesa Rabbi who founded his own Yeshiva and Rabbinical seminary. In 1911 he left Odesa for Germany to pursue a doctorate in Judaica from the University of Wuerzburg, and in 1923 moved to New York to begin a professorship in Talmud at the Jewish Institute of Religion. He stayed in New York for the rest of his life. Tchernowitz was one of the first scholars to combine halakhic knowledge with modern academic methods of research in his works on the 'oral Torah' and the halakha. He wrote a number of books and many scholarly articles on the subjects. Tchernowitz maintained a close friendship with Albert Einstein, who praised Tchernowitz's work for making the Torah accessible to all.

An 'eruv' is a ritual enclosure made for the purpose of allowing activities which are normally prohibited on Shabbat according to the halakha, specifically: carrying objects from a private to a public domain and transporting objects four cubits (about 2 meters) or more within a public domain. On the map of Odesa at the end of the book the 'eruv' can be seen marked with a dotted red line.

First edition; 8vo; folding map; later marbled boards, first three leaves detached, some closed tears to map, one part of the map detached, browning to pages with small marginal tears to some; Berlin library stamps; text in Hebrew with occasional Russian; 77, [3] pp.

Vinograd 10795.