Apr 25, 2013 By: libraryblog
The is a bibliography of all types of Jewish literature published in Hebrew characters, including different Jewish languages such as Hebrew, Yiddish and Ladino.
During the last 400 years individual scholars compiled bibliographies of Hebrew and Jewish literature. In 1959 Hebrew University and Mosad Bialik together with the Department of Education joined together to create a comprehensive bibliography. In the early 1990鈥檚 this monumental work was transferred to an electronic format.
The database contains more than 115,000 entries, describing material from the beginning of Hebrew printing (ca. 1460) until 1960.
The descriptions often include biographical information about the author and detailed information about the book itself. For instance, the authors of letters of approbation (haskamot) are usually identified in the description.
The rich content of this database is illustrated by the following example: There is a commentary to the Midrash Rabbah known as 鈥淩ashi鈥檚 commentary.鈥 Stylistically, however, it does not seem to be something that Rashi would have written. If you search for the earliest edition of the Midrash Rabbah with Rashi鈥檚 commentary, the entry in the Bibliography provides you with citations to scholarly articles regarding the authorship of this commentary.
Bibliography of the Hebrew Book is an excellent, authoritative resource for Jewish Studies research.
Posted by Moshe Schapiro.
