541) Romancing the Manuscript: The politics of knowledge in Chatam Sofer’s rejection of print.

Manuscript fragment of Toledot Yeshu

Introduction

This article—drawing extensively on the research of Professor Maoz Kahana[1]—examines R. Moshe Schreiber (known as Chatam Sofer, 1762-1839) and his ambivalent stance toward the well-established print culture of Jewish books, which had flourished since its beginnings three centuries earlier in 1475. In place of embracing print as the dominant medium, he issued a striking call for a return to manuscripts. Chatam Sofer is a major rabbinic figure who “carries the aura of a founding figure in the sociological fabric of modern Judaism” (Kahana 2025:300). 

By privileging manuscripts, Chatam Sofer reinforced rabbinic control over textual transmission, resisting the democratisation of knowledge that print enabled. As opposed to mechanical printing, manuscripts circulated in smaller, more controlled circles, limiting exposure to the unorthodox ideas that sometimes sprouted from the Enlightenment movement (Haskalah), which—significantly—used print aggressively to promote its agenda. 

314) THE DISCOVERY OF THE LOST SPANISH TALMUD:

 

A leaf from Seridei Bavli.

INTRODUCTION:

I have always been fascinated by the often incidental discovery of old important texts that are constantly being made in modern times. These include writings like those of Abulafia, for example, which Gershom Scholem happened to identify in Archives of the Bavarian State Library when he was writing his dissertation in 1919. There were also recent discoveries of the Meiri texts, as well as unpublished Rashi commentaries and other works and even the recovery of some of the more recent censored writing of Rav Kook.

In this article, we shall explore the accidental discovery of parts of the 500-year-old Spanish Talmud which was thought to have been lost forever.[1]