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Jewish World Review 10 Adar First printed Torah commentary By Rabbi Yonason Goldson Judaism's most famous commentary begins revelation of the Oral Tradition http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | When Biography.com presented its list of the 100 most influential people of the last millennium, their selection for the Number 1 position was as predictable as it was appropriate. It's a sad footnote to history that Johan Gutenberg possessed far more mechanical ability than business sense and died penniless, failing to capitalize upon his own innovation. Nevertheless, his popularization of movable type that led to the explosion of information and made possible the Renaissance can hardly be disputed as the most significant cultural event in contemporary World History. Its contribution to Jewish society is equally indisputable. Movable type first appeared as early as 1041, when Chinese printers fashioned interchangeable clay pieces to replace the clumsy plates that preceded them. It was not Gutenberg's invention, therefore, but rather his inspiration to apply the centuries-old technology in Europe, where the Chinese system had either gone unnoticed or been ignored. Gutenberg completed his printing press, equipped with wooden or cast metal type pieces, in 1440. His best known creation, the Gutenberg Bible, began rolling off the presses on September 30, 1452. It took little time for Jewish publishers to recognize the opportunity offered by the printing revolution. Scarcely 20 years after Gutenberg's Bible appeared, two Jewish presses on opposite ends of the Italian peninsula labored — unknown to one another — to prepare the first Torah manuscripts for mass production. On the tenth of Adar 5235 (17 February 1475) Abraham ben Garton published the first volume of Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki) on the Five Books of Moses in the southern town of Reggio di Calabria. Nearly four centuries after Rashi's passing, the most important commentary in the history of the Jewish nation became available to the masses. And, as if he had been brought into the world for no other purpose, its ground-breaking publisher vanished from history by the end of that very year. That same year, in July, Meshullam Cuzi published the influential codification of Jewish law, Arba'a Turim, in the northern village of Piove di Sacco. Italy rapidly acquired a near-monopoly on Jewish printing and, by 1834, the famous Gershom Soncino had produced over 100 different Hebrew works. Many interpreted this explosion of Hebrew publishing as the fulfillment of the prophecy that Torah would become "an inheritance for the community of Jacob" (Deut. 33:4) and that "the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of G-d" (Isaiah 11:9). Within a year of the first popular editions, the Jewish press had expanded to Spain, soon after to Lisbon, to Fez and, by the beginning of the next century, as far as Constantinople. The printing industry became known to many as the labor of Heaven. In 1520, the first printed volumes of the Talmud appeared, published, ironically, by a non-Jew, a Flemish merchant whose passion for Hebrew texts helped Venice become the center of Jewish publishing, a distinction it retained into the 18th century. Partnerships between Jews and gentiles accelerated competition and spurred on the industry. In 1550, Rabbi Meir Katzenellenbogen produced the first printed edition of Maimonides's Mishne Torah, the first codification of Jewish law. The original release of Mishne Torah in 1185 had ignited a ferocious controversy, in part from Maimonides's decision to omit his sources, but more fundamentally from an ideological debate concerning the authority of contemporary scholars to restructure the talmudic presentation of the Oral Tradition. Would not such a codification encourage the uneducated to take the awesome responsibility of interpreting Torah law into their own hands? Would it not erode the authority of qualified Torah authorities? As controversial as the Mishne Torah may have been, Maimonides succeeded at the very least in breaking the taboo against reformatting the Oral Law. Other Torah luminaries followed with codifications of their own, and the Arba'a Turim (as mentioned above) became the second Torah volume to receive wide circulation thanks to Gutenberg's method. But the most dramatic transition came when Rabbi Yosef Karo, after the success of his commentary on the Arba'a Turim, went on to publish his own codification of Jewish Law on the second of Elul 1564. By then, it was an idea whose time had finally come. Although he was Sephardi, Rabbi Karo's legal major opus, Shulchan Aruch, gained almost universal adulation even among Ashkenazim, and ran through nine reprintings in its first 33 years, becoming the first compendium of Jewish law accepted as authoritative throughout the entire Jewish world. From that point forward, Jewish law would advance not merely through the written word, but through the printed word as well. As indisputable as Gutenberg's influence on the written word has been, history came very close to taking an entirely different path. In 1444, a decade before Gutenberg, a French goldsmith named Procopius Waldvogel, from the southern city of Avignon, entered into partnership with a Jew named Davin de Caderousse. Having heard of Gutenberg's experiments in printing as he traveled through Germany, or perhaps conceiving the innovation of movable type on his own, Procopius sought an alliance that would bring his inspiration to reality. Davin, a dyer by profession, contributed his knowledge of dyes and mechanical devices, while Procopius fashioned the 27 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, cast in iron. In a contract that remains intact to this day, Davin certified that he had, on 26 August 1446, received the agreed upon materials to implement the craft of "artificial writing." It remains uncertain whether Davin envisioned an actual printing press or more of an archaic typewriter. Either way, as the Jews of Avignon were quite active in the book trade as binders, parchment procurers, and merchandisers already, Davin seems to have been eager to capitalize upon a promising new technology. The business venture, however, was not destined to succeed. Neither Davin nor Procipius seems to have been satisfied with the contribution of the other, and their quarrel culminated not merely in the liquidation of their partnership but in a lawsuit, wherein the court ordered Davin to return Procopius's typeset and forbade him to disseminate his craft within 30 miles of Avignon. Whether any Jewish publications actually made it into print from Davin's press remains unknown. But it's difficult not to imagine how, had events taken a slightly different course, it might have been a Jew instead of Gutenberg whom we honor for having given the printed word to the world. Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes inspiring articles. Sign up for our daily update. It's free. Just click here. JWR contributor Rabbi Yonason Goldson teaches at Block Yeshiva High School in St. Louis. Comment by clicking here. Previously: Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Samson Rafael Hirsch The Septuagint End of the Great Flood First Day of Creation Reprise at Sinai Tu B'Av: Repentance and the foundations of love Sin of the Golden Calf: Understanding the how and why and resulting Divine punishment The day the sun stood still Nemirov massacres and the Chmielnicki uprising Independent Judea under Shimon HaMaccabee The Great Revolt begins Dedication of new walls of Jerusalem © 2006, Rabbi Yonason Goldson