Simhah Reuben Edelmann (; January 1821 – December 1892), also known by the pen name Sar-Shalom ha-Adulami, was a Russian writer, grammarian, and rabbinic commentator.
Edelmann received a
Talmudical education at home and later at the
yeshivah of
Volozhin. He lived in
Rossein for about thirty years, mainly in the employ of a rich merchant of the name of Gabrilovitch, but for a part of the time in business for himself. Edelmann was the first to discover the latent talent of the poet
Judah Loeb Gordon
Judah or Yehuda is the name of a biblical patriarch, Judah (son of Jacob). It may also refer to:
Historical ethnic, political and geographic terms
* Tribe of Judah, one of the twelve Tribes of Israel; their allotment corresponds to Judah or Jud ...
, for whom he obtained a position as teacher in Gabrilovitch's house. After the death of his wife Edelmann left Rossein and lived for a short time in
Tels (1867). Later he was employed successively in
Mohilev and
Königsberg. In his later days he was again in business for himself, first in
Brest and then in
Kovno
Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Trakai ...
, and at last settled in Warsaw, the home of his surviving children, where he died.
Edelmann was the author of the following works: ''Shoshannim'', containing, besides some treatises on grammar and exegesis, a few poems, and a commentary on Canticles, Königsberg, 1860; ''Ha-Mesillot'', in three parts, of which the first treats of the
Masoretic text of the Bible and of the changed readings occurring in the Bible quotations of the Talmud;the second is a quasi-critical commentary on Psalms lxviii., xc., and c., and the third contains commentaries and explanations on various difficult passages of the Aggadah, Wilna, 1875; ''Ha-Tirosh'', a commentary on Midrash Rabbah, part 1, Genesis, Warsaw, 1891; and ''Doresh Reshumot'' (a scathing criticism of the liberal views advanced by Weiss in ''Dor''), ib. 1892. He also contributed valuable articles to Fuenn's ''
Ha-Karmel'' and Atlas' ''Ha-Kerem''.
Edelmann was considered one of the foremost champions of Orthodoxy in contemporary
Hebrew literature
Hebrew literature consists of ancient, medieval, and modern writings in the Hebrew language. It is one of the primary forms of Jewish literature, though there have been cases of literature written in Hebrew by non-Jews. Hebrew literature was pro ...
.
References
Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography
* ''Ḥakham ve-Dor'', a biography of S. R. Edelmann by his son Mordecai Isaac, Warsaw, 1885 (Hebrew).
* Zeitlin, ''Bibliotheca hebraica post-Mendelssohniana''.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edelmann, Simhah Reuben
1821 births
1892 deaths
Volozhin Yeshiva alumni
People of the Haskalah