1577 – An Itinerant Rabbi Brings the Hebrew Printing Press to the Land of Israel

JEWISH MOMENTS IN THE LAND OF ISRAEL

1577
The Sacred Craft Arrives in the Land of Israel:
An Itinerant Rabbi Brings Along the Hebrew Printing Press

In 1577, approximately 120 years after Gutenberg’s invention, R. Eliezer Ashkenazi established the first printing press in the Land of Israel in the city of Safed. This Jewish printer, who had learned his craft in Prague and operated in Lublin, brought Hebrew typography to the Holy Land through a partnership with local financier R. Abraham Ashkenazi. Their press operated intermittently for only a decade and produced merely six books. Yet, it was the first printing press operating in Western Asia, if not the whole continent.

———

R. Eliezer ben Isaac Ashkenazi (c.1530-c.1588) was born in Prague, where he learned the printer’s craft. By 1547, he had established himself in Lublin, Poland, where he founded what appears to have been the first Hebrew printing house in that city. The Lublin press flourished between 1557 and 1573, producing numerous volumes including several tractates of the Talmud. These works bore the approval and recommendation of the Councils of the Lands, indicating R. Eliezer’s reputation.

In 1574, driven perhaps by economic pressures or the desire for new opportunities, R. Eliezer departed Lublin for Constantinople, a thriving center of Hebrew publishing, taking with him most of his printing equipment and type. He entered into a partnership with R. David ben Eliyahu Kashti, a member of the ancient Romaniote Jewish community. He started adding Ashkenazi to his name to differentiate himself from the local Sephardic printers.

Together they printed several works, including a volume of geonic responsa in 1575 and a festival prayer book according to the Byzantine Jewish rite. In 1576, after his partnership dissolved, R. Eliezer published R. Baruch ibn Ya’ish’s commentary on the Song of Songs, titled Mekor Baruch [Source of Blessings]. In the colophon of this work, he expressed a desire that he would soon transform into action his wish to journey to the Land of Israel.

Upon arriving in Safed in 1577, R. Eliezer formed a partnership with R. Abraham ben Yitzchak Ashkenazi, whom he had previously worked with in Constantinople, and who provided the necessary financial support.

The first book to emerge from the Safed press, completed in September of 1577, was Lekach Tov [Good Instruction], a commentary on the Book of Esther by R. Yom Tov ben Moshe Zahalon, a young local scholar who would later become a prominent rabbinical authority. In his introduction, R. Zahalon expressed his delight at the establishment of a press in Safed and urged other authors to bring their works to Safed for publication. The choice of Esther as the subject of their inaugural publication was symbolically appropriate. The story of Jewish survival and divine providence in exile resonated with a community that had known expulsion and now found itself rebuilding in the ancestral homeland.

Between 1577 and 1579, R. Eliezer and R. Abraham produced two additional volumes also by local authors. The second book, Kehilat Yaakov [The Congregation of Jacob], appeared in 1578 as a commentary on Ecclesiastes by R. Moshe ben Mordecai Galante, a prominent Safed scholar. The third work, published in 1579, was Sar Shalom [Prince of Peace], R. Shmuel ben Yitzchak Aripul’s commentary on the Song of Songs.

In 1579, printing activities were interrupted when R. Abraham departed for Yemen as an emissary of the Tiberias Yeshiva and R. Eliezer returned temporarily to Constantinople. After several years, however, R. Eliezer and R. Abraham resumed their partnership and activities in Safed.

In 1587, they produced their final three publications. The most significant of these was Zemirot Israel [The Songs of Israel] by R. Israel ben Moshe Najara, a collection of 108 liturgical, poems and hymns by the prolific poet who had become rabbi of Gaza. They also published Mesacheket BaTevel [Rejoicing in the World], a work also by R. Najara of moral instruction on the vanity of worldly pursuits. The third book combined two classical works, Baraita d’Rabbi Eliezer, along with Midrash Agur. These ancient texts, dealing with Jewish law and biblical interpretation, represented the kind of foundational literature that formed the backbone of traditional Jewish learning.

R. Eliezer Ashkenazi died around 1588, likely succumbing to the plague that periodically swept through the region. With his death, Hebrew printing in the Land of Israel ceased entirely. The experience, quality, and international reach of the established Hebrew printing presses in Italy and the Ottoman Empire could not be matched. Indeed even during this period of activity of Hebrew printing in safed, most local authors had ongoing publishing relationships with these printing houses.

Nearly two and a half centuries passed before Hebrew printing, and in fact any printing press, would return to the Land of Israel.