PENTATEUCH WITH THE ADDERET ELIYYAHU (CLOAK OF ELIJAH) COMMENTARY OF RABBI ELIJAH BEN SOLOMON ZALMAN OF VILNA, DUBROVNO: ABRAHAM BEN JACOB HA-LEVI AND BARUCH BEN ELIJAH, [CA. 1802]-1804

The first edition of the Gaon of Vilna’s Pentateuch commentary.

Jews are first mentioned in Dubrovno, a small town in what is today Belarus, in 1685. During the eighteenth century, a tallit (prayer shawl) weaving industry established itself there, expanding through the nineteenth century. In 1800, the rabbi of the town, Uri Shraga Phoebus ben Solomon Zalman, a student of Rabbi Elijah ben Solomon Zalman of Vilna who may or may not have also been married to his youngest daughter Toybe (1768-1812), published a well-edited version of the text of the Five Scrolls with the commentaries of Rashi and Rabbi Jedediah Solomon Raphael Norzi (Minhat shai), as well as his own glosses (Sheyarei minhah), in Shklov. It was his (ultimately unrealized) goal to produce a complete Hebrew Bible in similar fashion.

The next installment of this project appeared in the rabbi’s hometown in 1804 (the printing, he writes, took about twenty-one months). Aside from the commentaries of Rashi, Norzi, Rabbi Jacob ben Asher, and Rabbi Obadiah Sforno, as well as two by the publisher himself (Menorat shelomoh and Minhat kalil), the most outstanding feature of this Pentateuch was its inclusion of the Gaon of Vilna’s commentary, Adderet eliyyahu. R. Elijah’s sons, Rabbis Judah Leib (1764-1816) and Abraham (1765-1808), penned an introduction to the book, which also boasts a rare approbation from the Gaon’s premier student, Rabbi Hayyim of Volozhin (1749-1821). Adderet eliyyahu on Leviticus would next appear in Kopys in 1818; the complete commentary would not be reprinted until 1859-1860, when it was published in Halberstadt.