How Pages from the World's Rarest Talmud Were Discovered

The first edition of the Talmud was printed in Guadalajara, Spain, from 1482 and onwards. It was printed by the press of Solomon ben Moses ha-Levi ibn Alkabez, which was at the time a Hebrew press of distinction. The tractates published by this press contained the text of the Talmud and Rashi’s commentary, without Tosfos. The Guadalajara tractates are printed with the text in square letters and Rashi is printed in a cursive Sephardic script. Ten years later, in 1492, the expulsion of the Jews from Spain occurred, and along with it came a mass burning of Hebrew books. As a result, not even one complete set of this remarkable Talmud remains in existence, with only small fragments, or at most a number of pages, to be found in select libraries. On public auctions, a single folio from this Talmud can sell for upwards of $5,000. The Rebbe’s library owns seventeen folios from this Talmud. In his lecture, Chief Librarian Rabbi Berel Levine explains how the library came to be in possession of these folios, and the remarkable story of their discovery.