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Object 10. James' "Rashi" on the Pentateuch: Genesis

1928

Description:

The 'Tutorial Preparations for Rabbinics’ Series included this volume on Rashi’s commentary on Genesis. Other volumes included guides to the Talmud, Mishnah and Gemara. In a letter to a colleague James Loewe described his aims for the project: ‘[to] prove that Talmud and Rashi and other Rabbinic literature can be learned in English, and also to eliminate the use of Yiddish in Talmud Torahs and Yeshivos’ (letter held currently at the Yeshiva University, New York Libraries). In the notes on this volume, which appear on the right hand page, he writes that he intended this book to provide ‘the Jewish as well as the non-Jewish student of elementary rabbinics with an unabridged edition of Rashi on Genesis’ alongside notes and translation in English. Three different typescripts are used to help the reader navigate this 11th century text.

Images to the right: title page, preface, and 2 p. of foreword.

Credits: Leopold Muller Memorial Library, Louis Jacobs Collection, shelfmark: LJ 222.41 Low95R.