Pentateuch: Torat Ha-Elohim.
In the Original Deluxe Binding
With Subscriber’s Name Stamped in Gilt on the Covers
[Judaica]. Leeser, Isaac, ed. The Pentateuch. The Law of God. Volume First [through fifth], containing The Book of Genesis [Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy]. Edited, and with former translations diligently compared and revised, by Isaac Leeser. Philadelphia: Printed by C. Sherman, for the editor, 5605 (1845).
5 vols., 8vo.; full dark brown morocco, elaborately stamped in gilt; a.e.g.. In a specially made quarter-morocco slipcase.
First edition of Leeser’s Pentateuch, the first translation of Torat Ha-elohim to be published in the United States; designed “for the service of the Synagogue, both German and Portuguese” (viii), with the English translation facing each page of Hebrew, strictly following the paragraph breaks of the original Hebrew (not the chapter or other breaks in the English Bible – though he has employed musical accents from various periods and sources), with pauses marked in the reading with a * . Published by Leeser by subscription (see Preface vol. 1 p. vi). Rosenbach 569, Singerman 0884, Goldman 7.
In the deluxe binding in which Leeser presented a limited number of copies of many of his books.
In his preface printed in the first volume Leeser discusses the impetus for this edition, the hurdles overcome to complete it, and the rewards of the experience. Leeser announced his intentions with this project seven years prior and “notwithstanding its great importance it had attracted so little attention, that the aid promised would not pay one-third of the necessary outlay.” Such an endeavor, he knew, required readings by “at least two competent persons; but in the absence of an associate of this kind, I had to do all this myself.” He apologizes for any errors the reader may find, but points out that they are unavoidable, especially given his lack of assistants, his lack of Jewish compositors, and the vagaries of printing. “The greatest course of error which I have had to contend with was the liability of the small points either to break off in printing, or by their not coming up properly, although they were correct in the proof-sheet” (p. vi). However, he is confident the work was, over all, “well done,” and, in his estimation, quite beautiful:
I doubt whether the precious word of God ever appeared among us in a more beautiful form than the volumes in which I am now engaged, and of which the present is the first.
Indeed: bound in full morocco, a.e.g. and with elaborate designs on the upper and lower panels and the spines, also in gilt; and with the name of the individual subscriber, through whose partial sponsorship the project was made possible, in gilt on the upper panel of each volume: Esther Asch. Though she does not look up in standard references, she was no doubt a devout and well-to-do member of Leeser’s community.
Leeser worked alone on the project:
With the aid of Onkelos, Rashi, Mendelssohn, and the new translation of Mr. Hyman Arnheim of Glogau, and working on the basis of the English version of the Bible, together with the little knowledge I have myself of the sacred tongue, I thought, in all due humility, that I might safely go to the task, confidently relying upon that superior aid, which is never withheld from the inquirer after truth. (p. vii)
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