LEYB-VOLF
KHEYFETS (b. 1862)
He was born in Zembin, Pinsk
district, Byelorussia, where his father was rabbi. He studied in religious elementary school and
yeshivas, and received ordination into the rabbinate. He served as rabbi in a number of towns in
Lithuania. In 1902 he became headmaster
of the yeshiva in Nikolaev, and later until 1910 he lived in the Jewish colony
of Dobrinka, Kherson district. He was
the author of: Hilkheta betaama (The
laws of judgment) (Warsaw, 1891), 200 pp.; Midrash
avot (Midrash on the Ethics of the
Fathers) (Warsaw, 1896), 126 pp., which later appeared in Yiddish (Warsaw,
1900), 120 pp.; Midrash meorer
(Midrash on awakening) (Warsaw, 1908), 64 pp.; and other Hebrew-language
religious texts.[1] However, it was his books in Yiddish that made
him very popular. He first wrote a short
work in Yiddish, based on materials from the Yosippon (Josippon) and the Talmud,
entitled Seyfer milkhomes yisroel
(Volume on the wars of Israel) (Berdichev, 1903), 32 pp.: “Here is described
what happened to the Jewish people in all the wars and the extraordinary
heroism that Jews demonstrated against the Romans in the era when the Romans
came to the land of Israel to destroy the Jewish state, and the Second Temple
was at that time demolished.” He went on
to published a Jewish history supported by materials from the Talmud and midrashim,
entitled Zikhronot levet yisrael
(Memoirs of the House of Israel), eight parts (Berdichev, 1903-1907), 592 pp.,
various editions—also under the title: Seyfer
medresh yeme kedem, dos iz yudishe historye fun talmud umedroshim (Volume
of tales from days of old, this is Jewish history from the Talmud and midrashim)
(Berdichev, 1907), 80 pp., second enlarged edition (Berdichev, 1909), 121 pp.,
with a preface entitled “Announcement,” in which he wrote inter alia: “This volume is useful for everyone, young or old,…and
as in our time not everyone can understand Hebrew, I have thus written in
Yiddish, in the language which we recognize that everyone should understand and
know from the folk life as it is.” The
book carried a string of approbations by noted rabbis, among them Rabbi Chaim
Berlin.
Source:
Bet eked sefarim.
Khayim Leyb Fuks
[1] Translator’s note. WorldCat gives “Aryeh-Ze’ev Ḥefets” as the author of these three works, with
roughly the same dates of publication and page numbers; however, it gives this Ḥefets as born in 1843/1844. Something is awry here. (JAF)
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