Moshe Aryeh Leib Friedland

Information from HIS book: Daat Kedoshim.

See general information about his life and library: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0013_...

The relevant section is copied here: FRIEDLAND COLLECTION

The Friedland collection, housed in the Oriental Institute of the Academy of Science in St. Petersburg, contains unique manuscripts on the Bible: biblical commentaries in Judeo-Arabic, Persian, Turkish and other Middle Eastern languages; lexicography; ethics; astronomy; theology; philosophy; music; and historical material such as travel narratives, documents, archives and records of Jewish communities in Middle Eastern countries. There is a great deal of Karaitic literature. One of the rare Bibles, consisting only of the Later Prophets, bears the date 847 C.E.

A manuscript catalog begun by the late Yonah Y. Ginzburg was completed several years ago by A.M. Gasov-Ginzberg. The Oriental Institute in St. Petersburg, formerly under the direction of K.B. Starkova, has prepared an eight-volume catalog describing in detail the entire manuscript collection. This catalog lists the following: 339 items dealing with Bible, commentaries and lexicography; 291 items dealing with philosophy, ethics, mysticism and theology; 332 items dealing with mathematics, physics, astronomy, medicine and music; 215 items dealing with Karaitic and liturgical works; 149 items of material on the Golden Age of Spain and literature of the Middle Ages, such as responsa, letters, records and documents.

The circumstances under which the Friedland collection was assembled, and its subsequent presentation to the Imperial Institute of St. Petersburg, is of more than passing interest and merits that it be given in some detail, especially in view of the fact that it explains the contents of this invaluable library.

Moses Aryeh Leib Friedland (1826–99) was a prominent Jewish leader in Czarist Russia and corresponded with all the leading rabbis of Russia in his endeavors to ease the economic and political plight of the Jews of the country during the era of the "Cantonists," when Jews were confined to the *Pale of Settlement and professions and trades were closed to them. Moreover, following the Congress of *Vienna (1814–15) some two million Jews were added from the Duchy of Warsaw or the Kingdom of Poland and draconic steps were taken by the authorities to uproot them from their settlements and change their way of life.

Into this oppressive and tyrannical atmosphere was tossed the complicated and stormy question of the Haskalah, the "enlightenment" movement which, according to its proponents, was to secure new standing for the Jews as a people, by means of an orderly and suitable process of integration into the life of the state. Against this background one can appreciate Friedland's leap into the battle occupying his people, which was one of the factors contributing towards the acquisition of his huge library.

Friedland did not belong to the same upper social class as the Guenzburgs. Starting from humble beginnings he traveled through the vast Russian steppes under the most trying conditions and in face of real danger, and he learned at first hand the joy of succeeding by dint of one's own labor. He felt the need to broaden the curriculum of education among Jews in Russia, by introducing into the yeshivah curriculum secular subjects and the Russian language. Convinced that this was the only way to salvation for the Jewish masses in Russia, Friedland ardently espoused the cause of the Haskalah and engaged in a voluminous correspondence with the great rabbis of the time in an attempt to persuade them to modernize their curriculum. Friedland's brother, Meir, was connected by marriage to Dr. Azriel *Hildesheimer. Friedland saw in his brother the ideal combination of religious and secular learning he strived for. Wherever he traveled in Russia he recorded accurate statistics concerning the size of the Jewish population, its communal institutions and his reason for demanding enlightenment and accepting the government's regulations, for under the circumstances that prevailed it was no longer possible to conceal from the authorities what was happening in Jewish communal life. All this had a direct bearing on the content of his library. Among his manuscripts is the Kol Negidim in four volumes, which is a veritable treasure house of information on the Jewish community of Russia during the 19th century. It consists of hundreds of letters, correspondence with the leading rabbis of his time dealing with their history and the many problems facing them. Included are the following references:

(1) The leaders of Russian Jewry at the time of Poliakoff, Guenzburg and others.

(2) Friedland's suggestion to include the teaching of the Russian language in Yeshivat Mir similar to the program in Yeshivat Volozhin.

(3) The rabbinical authorities – their attitudes to the introduction of secular education into the yeshivot.

(4) The Petersburg Congress of leading rabbis.

(5) The condition of Russian Jewry in Siberia, the Ukraine and elsewhere.

(6) The government requirement that every rabbi study the Russian language for six years.

(7) The controversy over deleting liturgical poems (piyyutim) and kinot in the prayers.

(8) The plan of Rabbi Isaac Jacob *Reines to establish a special yeshivah at Lida.

(9) The controversy between Rabbi Jacob Lifshitz and the leaders of the enlightenment movement.

In addition to these Friedland set himself the task of gleaning the treasures of Jewish learning in order to disseminate through them a knowledge of this heritage. He amassed a large collection of books, some of them extremely rare, at his own expense. These books were not limited to any one field or subject. His library was quantitatively large and qualitatively valuable, which was considered unique in the sphere of private libraries. Included also was a complete collection of the books of the Talmud, both early and late; books of rabbinical decisions (poskim); books of research and responsa in halakhah; books of meditation and thought; and numerous volumes of "enlightenment" books. Among the manuscripts in this collection are copies of Maimonides' Guide to the Perplexed, with numerous variants, two translations of the Koran in Hebrew by Jacob b. Israel Halevi, works by Tanḥum b. Joseph ha-Yerushalmi, Isaac b. Judah ibn Ghayyat, Judah Halevi, Solomon ibn Gabirol and Judah Al-Ḥarizi.

In the foreword to Kehillat Moshe, St. Petersburg 1896, S. Wiener wrote: "Moshe [Aryeh Leib Friedland], in addition to his good deeds for the general welfare of his people, and for the welfare of the individual in his support of several thousand families who bless his name, as the best known and most famous throughout the dispersion, this man also managed to build an everlasting sanctuary for the works of Jewish scholars. In this he has been eminently successful for he has collected in his home more than 14,000 of the finest works and has placed them as eternal witness for permanent safekeeping forever for all generations to come, in a building of the Asiatic Museum of the Imperial Academy of Science in St. Petersburg where, together with the museum's collection, the number of volumes listed will exceed 24,000." In my archives there is a personal letter written by S. Wiener to a friend of his, a learned scholar in Warsaw, on 12 Tevet 1891, in St. Petersburg, in which he says: "The number of books being published in the holy tongue [Hebrew] is about 10,000, and there are about 400 handwritten manuscripts. There is no treasure that compares with this except in Oxford and in London; this one is third in quantity and value." Friedland's library included "the collection which the learned grammarian Ber Bamfi of Minsk gathered throughout his life (he died on 28 Adar 1888). He spent a vast fortune on locating and building up a library of new and old and even rare volumes in all the subjects of Jewish learning and literature, the like of which has never before been seen in our city" (Naphtali Maskileison, Alon Bachut, Ha-Meliẓ, 1888, No. 53).

Friedland's library also contained the collection of books of Elieser Lipman Rabinowich who died in Ḥeshvan 1887 (see Ha-Meliẓ, No. 147). It contained also the choicest volumes collected by the prominent man of wealth, Shmaryahu Zuckerman of Mogilev (died in 1879), among which is the Mekhilta with the commentary on Zeh Yenaḥameinu, which the Gaon of Vilna studied and revised with his own hand (Wiener's foreword to Kehillat Moshe). Likewise included in Friedland's library were "about 2,000 volumes from the superb and valuable collection assembled throughout his life by the excellent bibliographer Joseph Mazal of Wiazin" (ibid.) as well as priceless volumes from various collections acquired for Friedland in Europe and other places. Friedland prized his library and was fully cognizant of its importance and value. In the initial stage he attended to his collection himself, but in the course of time – as it expanded and became more ramified – he engaged people specifically to catalog and classify the works according to subjects and to supervise and direct the progressive completion of the collection by acquiring every rare and priceless volume available in order to render his library complete.

In 1880 there appeared in *Ha-Meliẓ an announcement which aroused consternation throughout the Jewish community. It declared that Friedland had decided to transfer his invaluable library to the Imperial Institute in St. Petersburg. It created a storm of controversy; it was considered by some as a betrayal of the Jewish people, especially since access to the institute was forbidden to Jews. Only one rabbi in Russia, Rabbi David ben Samuel *Friedmann of Karlin, at that time an active member of the *Hibbat Zion movement, while expressing his concern and sorrow at this step, tried to reason him out of it and proposed to Friedland that he transfer his library to Jerusalem. In a deeply moving letter he praised him for the labor and expense invested in this collection. The fact, however, that it would be housed in an institution closed to the Jews would result in "these volumes and the wisdom of their authors remaining locked up in darkness… Therefore, my advice to you is to establish a Jewish library in Jerusalem, the holy city, under the supervision of its rabbis, both Sephardi and Ashkenazi." He went into meticulous detail relevant to the implementation of his proposal: the binding of books, cataloging, means of keeping it up to date, budget requirements, librarians.

Rabbi Friedman's letter aroused a responsive chord in Friedland's heart. He regretted, however, that the suggestion had come too late; had it come earlier he would have accepted it.

In point of fact, Friedland was aware of the probable fate of his library, insofar as its use for Jews was concerned, if he gave it to St. Petersburg, since the authorities had closed the Jewish library in Warsaw and the Strashun Library in Vilna, and he sent 1,500 volumes of his library to the Great Bet Hamidrash of Dinaburg. To his consternation and dismay, however, he discovered that they had not even been taken out of their containers and he went to the expense of putting up shelves and appointing a librarian. But when the authorities refused to pay the wages of the librarian, he finally decided to give it to the St. Petersburg Institute. It was open daily and its "personnel consisted of people who regard Jewish learning very highly." Moreover, the authorities added to it some 3,000 duplicate copies of works already in their possession and undertook to appoint a special official in charge. The famous Russian Orientalist, Paul K. Kokovtsov, undertook the responsibility for its care and maintenance. Friedland consoled himself with the hope that circumstances would change. He believed that, housed within the Asiatic Museum, his library was destined to be used extensively. Many would study the volumes and contemplate their contents and would, through them, develop a familiarity with and esteem for the people which had produced men of such spirit and wisdom. The transfer of the library to the governmental institute was therefore, in Friedland's eyes – under the circumstances which then ruled the life of the Jews of Russia – a form of the most superior kind of "intercession" because as he saw it: "We shall find favor in the eyes of the government, for the benefit of our people, just as our Father Jacob placed the entire camp before him, when he went to face Esau, to ensure his safe journey."

Thus did the Friedland Library find its home in St. Petersburg.