Almanac - Manuscript......Luach....SIGNED ON FIRST PAGE..AVRAHAM SON OF ELEAZER KATZ (COHEN)..5539 (1778)..PHILADELPHIA....this is the author. Started in Philadelphia and finished in Lancaster. Writen for the year 1779 in 1778
See analysis below by Jonathan Sarna,
he beleieves that the Almanac first passed to Jacob I. Cohen who the willed his library to his nephew Joshua I. Cohen upon his death. I can find no support for this theory...including the fact that this luach was not in Joshua I. Cohen inventory.
Jonathan would agree with the conclusion that ABRAHAM ELEAZER COHEN was the author as follows:
Dear Arny,
Joshua Cohen's library was really begun by Jacob I. Cohen of Richmond who willed the books to his nephew upon his death. Interesting that Isacks kept family records in an Haggadah and not (as customary) in a Bible. (reference to a different item).
Re the question of Abraham E. Cohen: this seems highly plausible. Cohen may have followed the Sephardic custom of taking his father's first name as his middle name (just like Mordecai Manuel Noah, whose father was Manuel). As a shamash, Cohen would certainly have needed a luach. If his father was rabbi, he probably had learned how to make one. According to both Wolf & Whiteman and Rosenbloom's BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY, there is an extant will for Abraham Eliezer Cohen. You might see if AJA has a copy, and if it sheds any light on the issue.
Thanks so much for enriching our knowledge through your wonderful finds and purchases!
Best from house to house -- Jonathan
LISTS ALL THE READING PORTIONS; & OBSCURE HOLIDAYS..VERY LEARNED SIGNED ON SEPERATE PAGE "G. WETTZELL...LANCASTER; GERSHOM MENDES SEIXAS SERVED M.I AS THE HAZZAN DURING THE REV.
Rabbi Mordechai Torczyner (Rabbi at Congregation Sons of Israel...Allentown) and his wife Caren did the scholarly interuputation. AS follows:
The 1778-9 Luach
Authorship
A few notes on the author:
1. The author is learned enough to know the Jewish calendar well. He didn't transcribe his information from a more learned source - misspellings (Pages 1, 3, 4, 6, 8) indicate he is working from memory
2. He appears to be lacking certain information, presumably for lack of higher level sophistication. He includes the "Molad," the time when the moon enters its new phase, but he generally breaks it down into Hours and Minutes, omitting Chalakim. Only for Cheshvan (Page 2) does he include Chalakim (and there his number actually appears to be wrong - see Page 2 for elaboration). His interest in the Molad shows his religious observance, though, as does his recording of the Tekufah, the solstice.
3. He is observant, even to the point of keeping fast days (B"H"B) that were popular in Europe but are rarely observed in America.
4. A few nuances in the Luach might give away the writer's country of origin - I'll note these as we encounter them. See Page 2 Note 1 and Page 11 Note 3.
Front Cover
1. Faint 1778 A.D. at top is clearly added later, likely by a Christian; Jews shied away from writing "AD"
2. The first bold line says "Luach 5539," and may be the work of the author
3. The next two lines say "of the year five thousand, five hundred, nine and thirty," in a cursive Hebrew font. I believe this is added by a different author - the cursive font is used throughout the Luach, and that handwriting doesn't match this one. Note: The cursive font is a direct transcription of text at the bottom of the page, which I will describe in Note 6 below.
4. There are two lines of block text running orthogonally on the left side of the page; these appear to be later additions. It appears to be a name, possibly "Shlomo son of Eliyahu" and then a last name. I suspect an unlearned writer, as he appears to have used a "final Mem" in the middle of Shlomo.
5. Three bold lines of block Hebrew text follow, and they appear to name the author. I believe they read:
Avraham son of the honorable rabbi (Kvod haRav, Rav)
Eliezer the righteous Kohen, may Gd protect him
Philadelphia, Rosh Chodesh Tishrei
Some comment is necessary here:
On line 1, the last set of characters is clearly Kaf-Hei-Reish-Reish, a non-word. Jewish texts dating back at least to the 14th century used this set of characters as an acronym for "Kvod haRav, Rav" preceding the name of a great sage. Further, it was often used to identify a father - "X, son of Kvod haRav, Rav Y"
On line 2, "the righteous Kohen" is denoted with a two-character acronym, "Kaf-Tzadi." That stands for Kohen Tzedek, or righteous Kohen. Jews named Katz are generally (but not universally!) Kohanim; they took the acronym as their last name.
Also on line 2, "may Gd protect him" is also an acronym, "Yud-Tzadi-Vav" being a known acronym invoking Divine protection. There are many possible formulations for the words contracted therein; selecting one over another would be a matter of pure speculation until we knew more about the author's nationality.
Line 3 is perplexing. Strictly speaking, there is no "Rosh Chodesh Tishrei" at all! Rosh Chodesh is the first of the month - and the first day of Tishrei is not identified as Rosh Chodesh, but rather as Rosh HaShanah! Further, a colonial Jew observant enough to care about a Luach would not have written it on Rosh haShanah, so what is the significance of the date? If he wants to show that this Luach is for the year, he should write 5539 - as he does on the next line! I can't understand what those words are doing there.
It is clear that this is Abraham son of Eliezer, he is a Kohen, and he may well have been a teacher (more on this later under "Authorship") - I suggest you check the identity of the Abraham Eliezer Cohen of Philadelphia, and see if historians might have misidentified his name. The name on this Luach is unmistakable.
6. Following those three lines we are treated to two lines of a shorthand font known colloquially as "Rashi" script, as it was used to publish Rashi's 11th century commentaries to Torah, Prophets and Talmud. The words are "Five thousand, five hundred and nine and three." See Note 3 above and Note 3 regarding the inside front cover.
7. Below that we have someone apparently re-writing the name of the author in a blockier text. Most of the text is obscured, but the legible part on the scan says "Avraham son of the honorable rabbi" - like the top line in the center text above. I suspect this text was meant to be a copy of the text above. It could be the text of the author, though - the font matches that of the month names, appearing on each page in the Luach.
8.There is a set of three or four characters running perpendicular to the author's name, each time the author's name appears. The text is inked out in both places, and I can't make it out.
Inside Front Cover
1. The four lines of text on the Inside cover seem to be have been designed around an interesting monogram. The monogram is clearly the frame of a Letter Aleph - compare a similar notation appearing twice on the inside back cover. I would have assumed it to be a doodle, perhaps even a monogram for the author of the Luach (whose name begins with Aleph), but it appears to be part of the text in the Inside cover - a text I believe to be later in origin.
2. The text, which is in a cursive font, reads:
Rachel, wife of the distinguished man
Yaakov son of Yehoshua
Kohen, for Chupah
And for good deeds, Amen
This would seem to be a dedication to a recipient of the Luach, and the blessing of "Chupah and good deeds" are standard blessings for Jewish women.
It is odd, though - If she isn't yet married then why is she the wife of the distinguished man? And if she is married then why bless her for Chupah? One possible speculation - Jewish marriage consists of two stages, Kiddushin and Nisuin. Kiddushin is the giving of the ring, and begins the marital bond, but the marital bond is not complete until Nisuin, which is the stage under the Chupah. A man and woman who have executed Kiddushin but not Nisuin are considered married - if they wish to separate, they need a religious bill of divorce. Historically, Jews conducted Kiddushin, then wait up to a year while the groom arranged his livelihood, then conclude Nisuin - and this could have been a wedding gift for Kiddushin.
3. This four line text is not that of the author - its cursive font does not match the cursive font he uses in the Luach itself. However, it does appear to match the cursive font on the cover. Perhaps the gift-giver penned the text on the front as a means of deciphering the "Rashi" font for the recipient?
Page One
1. His format for the Luach is practically identical to the standard format used today - columns listing solar date, Hebrew date, day of the week, and special days and Torah readings.
2. Interesting - He identifies the Shabbat before Yom Kippur as "Shabbat Teshuvah." It is generally recognized to be "Shabbat Shuvah," so named because of its special "Shuvah" reading from the Prophets, but it is colloquially termed "Teshuvah," meaning "repentance," because of its proximity to Yom Kippur.
3. Note that in the left column he includes diagrams to indicate lunar phases
4. Misspelling - He writes "Hoshanah" with "Hei" at the end, and it should be an "Aleph." The pronounciation does not change.
5. Interesting graphic embellishments of "Bereishit" and "Rosh Chodesh" - the Rosh Chodesh curlicue continues in later months, too.
6. When he gets to the 30th day of the month - for this and all other 30-day months - he writes out the Letter Lamed as Lamed-Mem-Daled.
Page Two
1. Worth noting - he calls the month by the colloquial name "Cheshvan," where many Jews would have called it by its technically correct name, "Marcheshvan." This may help indicate country of origin.
2. Note inclusion of dates for B"H"B fasts.
3. His Chalakim calculation must be wrong. There are 1080 Chalakim in an hour, and he says the Molad takes place in the 28th minute - but at 793 Chalakim!
Page Three
1. Someone - not the author - wrote "Kislev", the name of the month, on the back of the preceding page. It's not the author - the author uses an odd spelling, including a Yud between the Lamed and the Vav.
2. I cannot decipher the note at the bottom of the left-most column.
Page Four
1. He misspells the name of the Torah portion "Vaera," placing a Hei at the end instead of an Aleph
2. Text at the bottom left of the page is illegible; is there water damage? Looking at the back of the page, there does appear to be water damage.
Page Six
1. The author originally misplaced the Fast of Esther, then crossed it out and put it in its proper place
2. The author mis-wrote "Esther," starting it with an Ayin. For an Ashkenazic Jew this won't change the pronounciation, though.
Page Seven
1. Note special notation for the night of the search for Chametz (Bedikah) and the added column for the Omer Date
Page Eight
1. Note the B"H"B dates appearing again
2. Misspells the Torah portion of Metzora, substituting a Hei for the Ayin that belongs there. For an Ashkenazic Jew this won't change the pronounciation, though.
3. The back of the previous page contains an inscription in English characters - it seems to say G Wertzel 1779. I don't know what this might have to do with the authorship of the book, or the identity of the gift-giver/recipient. See Page 11, Note 1.
Page Eleven
1. The back of the previous page contains an inscription:
G Wettsell
Lancaster
See Page 8, Note 3.
2. The author writes August as "Achustus," whereas the rest of his transliterations of English months are true to the American pronounciation.
3. The author links the Torah portion of Devarim with "Eichah (Lamentations)," but Eichah is not read on Shabbat, it's read on the Fast of the Ninth of Av, which is later that week. I do recall hearing that some communities historically read part of Eichah as the portion from the Prophets for the Shabbat of Devarim, and that might provide a clue as to the author's origins.
Back Cover
The back cover has a line of text that appears to be in English characters.
It also features several Hebrew characters, apparently practice characters or doodles.
It also features the first seven Letters traced out, and the first of them is a Letter Aleph that strongly resembles the Aleph "monogram" on the inside front cover.
As per Prof. Jonathan Sarna (3/15/07)...Original message from "Jonathan D. Sarna" <sarna@brandeis.edu>: --------------
Dear Arnie,
I have been studying your luach, thanks to some images that the AJA sent me. As you know, the name -- which seems to me to be in a different hand than the calendar -- is Rachel wife of Jacob son of Joshua. The only early American Jew I know who fits this description is Rachel Jacobs [Pollak], the second wife of Jacob I. Cohen (whose father was Joshua). Of course, they only married in 1807, so if I am right the inscription came later. As I recall, there is a listing [by Cyrus Adler] of the library of Jacob I. Cohen. It might be worth seeing if there is mention there of this luach. That would confirm my hunch that it comes from that collection. I do not own the! listin g of Cohen's library, but I bet that HUC does.
Warm regards -- Jo! nathan< BR>
To Arthur Kiron (1/10/2011),
This is the information on Joseph Cohen (1745-1822) that I culled while researching Lewis Cohen (FYI, see Write up on Lewis Cohen below)….The Jews of Lancaster, Pa. by David Brener. It may shed some light on both my Luach and the documents in the Katz Library.
Lewis Cohen's father was Joseph Cohen (1745-1822) who came to America in 1768 from Germany via England and clerked for the Gratz Brothers. In 1781 he returned to England and stayed until the 1790's. In 1798 he served as the shohet for Shearith Israel in NYC. By 1799, in Lancaster, Pa., he was listed in the house of Joseph Simon as "Household Rabbi ". He was listed in the 1791 Lancaster tax records as a shop keeper.… Joseph Cohen died in England (1822).
Observations and areas of further research
1. Joseph Cohen's time period with Gratz Brothers would certainly coincide with the time period of the Luach 1777-1778. The Philadelphia then Lancaster sojourn during the Revolution fits
2.The author signs his name as Avraham Son of Eleazer Katz (Cohen)...5539 (1778)...Philadelphia
a. Singerman does not list his father
3.He gave the Luach to Rachael with a blessing to an unmarried girl.
a.He had a daughter Rachael (no details in Singerman)
4.Rachael Gratz (1764-1831) married Solomon Etting in 1791. His first wife was Reyna (Rachael) Simon in 1783…bingo!!! Was it Reyna (Rachael) Simon (1764-1790) who received the Luach????? Therefore do we point more in the direction of Reyna (Rachael) Simon?…she was 14 years old in 1778 and 18 at her Kiddushin in 1782
a.Rabbi Mordechai Torczyner (Rabbi at Congregation Sons of Israel...Allentown) and his wife Caren did the scholarly interpretation. He is quizzical as to why in the dedication starts with the blessing to a married woman but gives the blessing of "Chupah and good deeds" … standard blessings for Jewish women.
i. He speculates…- If she isn't yet married then why is she the wife of the distinguished man? And if she is married then why bless her for Chupah? One possible speculation - Jewish marriage consists of two stages, Kiddushin and Nisuin. Kiddushin is the giving of the ring, and begins the marital bond, but the marital bond is not complete until Nisuin, which is the stage under the Chupah. A man and woman who have executed Kiddushin but not Nisuin are considered married - if they wish to separate, they need a religious bill of divorce. Historically, Jews conducted Kiddushin, then wait up to a year while the groom arranged his livelihood, then conclude Nisuin - and this could have been a wedding gift for Kiddushin.
1.If this is correct it could very well have been a wedding gift to Reyna (Rachael) Simon at her Kiddushin (1782).
5.The strong evidence as to the author still points to Abraham Eleazer Cohen given the signature
6. Given the later date on the Penn. Manuscripts at Penn. and "Etting" on one…possibly they are by Joseph Cohen
7. To do
a. Can a scholar compare the manuscripts in the Katz Library for
i. Hand writing
ii. Similarities in Festivals/Holidays
iii. Recheck, do we agree that the citation on the Luach in the Kaplan Collection is in fact "a blessing to an unmarried girl"
1. Any clue in the Hebrew as to the honored husband…could it be Solomon Etting?
b. There is other Hebrew on the Luach (not Abraham Eleazer Cohen)…could that be Solomon Etting? Or on Joseph Cohen