While printing houses generally operated for the use of the local population, occasionally I came across an oddity that encourages you to rethink everything you thought you knew about geography and community relationships. One such very rare volume I acquired this week, is one such book, a siddur printed in Vilna in 1887, but edited and brought to the press by Rabbi Shelomo Bekhor Hutzin of Iraq, and following the customs of Baghdadi Jews. A comprehensive siddur for Mincha and Arvit, weekday and Shabbat, it includes many peculiarities particular to the Baghdad Jewish community, such as their own nusach of grace after meals.
The one who brought it to the press in Vilna was Rabbi Shelomo Bekhor Hutzin (1843-1892). Hutzin was a prominent Baghdadi Jewish posek, liturgical poet, journalist, translator, bookseller and publisher. Why would a bookseller from Baghdad print a book for the local community in distant Lithuania? The mystery intensifies when you realize that a Hebrew press was already present in Baghdad at this time.
While R. Hutzin was living in Iraq, his business and correspondence had tentacles throughout the world. He was a writer for several European Hebrew newspapers and over the years he wrote more than 150 articles for various newspapers, such as Halebanon, Hamagid, Ha-Tsefirah, Habatzeleth, Hadover (Baghdad), Hamevaser (Calcutta), and others. His topics were often descriptions of his native community as well as about the Jews of Kurdistan, India and Iran. The year following the publication of this siddur, he founded his own Hebrew printing press which was active until his death in 1892 and continued to be active after his passing, operated by his son. In some of his book catalogs that have survived, as well as ads he placed in newspapers promoting his bookstore, we find many titles from European presses of the day, indicating that he was in close contact with the printing presses of Europe.
In another direction, we find that Hutzin was in contact with Eastern European Rabbis, with his Haskamot (approbations) appearing in 2 books printed by and authored by Eastern European Jews, one of them being the Sidre Taharah authored by R. Gershon Leiner, the Radziner Rebbe. While the physical distance was indeed great between the two communities, we find that the space between the world’s Jews was quickly diminishing by the end of the 19th century, with commerce and the worldwide trade of sefarim helping to close the gaps.
