I recently acquired what seems to be the only printed copy of a work that was unknown and hidden from the world until I chanced upon it.
The person responsible for this work, Shem Hagedolim Hashlishi – featuring biographies of rabbis and a bibliography of their sefarim – is not your typical author. Moshe Markowitz was born in Lithuania in 1855, became an orphan at age 8, and was a shoemaker by profession.
Reputed to have a brilliant memory, he never learned to read or write Hebrew, so he was forced to request the assistance of local yeshiva bachurim to help him compile his sefer. In 1910, he published a first volume containing, in alphabetical order, biographies of 277 rabbis whose name begins with alef.
The rest of his work remained in manuscript form, part of which is currently in the possession of the National Library of Israel. Since Markowitz couldn’t write, the handwriting of numerous different hands appear in the manuscript.
The volume I recently obtained is an updated and expanded edition, printed in 1934 in the town of Tauageje, Lithuania – apparently the only Hebrew book published in this town. It appears that this was a sample printing, perhaps used by the author to show people his work and obtain funding.
He died shortly after this printing and his son R. Shlomo Zalman Tuvia, whose ownership markings appear on the free-end, was murdered in 1943 in the Holocaust. This volume contains 650 entries, over double that of the known printed edition, although this volume too only contains rabbis whose names begin with aleph.
The author writes on the title page, “All who have a heart shall take a lesson from me, as I, a simple man, who was a shoemaker by profession, spent 40 years compiling this work. More than once I lacked bread to eat, but I did not refrain from writing this work.”
This volume also contains additional haskamot that do not appear in the earlier edition. The numerous approbations all note the devotion and efforts of the author to compile the information for this work and get it published.
