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(Xt) Harkavy, Saul Gedaliah : SEFER VE-HU SHA'UL: BARZEL HAD MIN DIVRE KODESH BE-SHIR HA-SHIRIM ? AL MATSAV HA-YAHUDUT BE-AMERIKE = DI GELIHENE HAK : SHARFE REYD FUN HEYLIGEN SHIR HA-SHIRIM GELIHEN TSU KRITIKIREN AMERIKANER IDISHKAYT

Boston, Mass. : Bi-Defus Shel Yosef Yehuda Shor,, 1910

1st Edition. Presume Original blue paper wrappers, 8vo, 111 pages; 21 cm. In Hebrew and Yiddish with the Author’s address in Nashua, NH, noted in English on the title page. Title translates as, “The Borrowed Axe: A Pointed Essay on the Song of Songs as a Critique of the State of American Judaism. ” An anti-assimilationist polemic, critical of the Jews of small town New England, including Nashua, NH, written in the form of a running commentary to the Song of Song by a Mir and Volozhin-educated immigrant to Nashua, Goldman 1148. “Harkavy was born in 1859 in Yeremichi, Minsk Province, and he studied in the yeshivot of Mir and Volozhin…. He immigrated to America in 5667 [1907]. In 5671 [1911, the year of publication] he lived with his brother in Nashua, NH, and was a teacher. Sh. Goldman [1993-1, quoted in Yosef Goldman] notes that "Harkavy's Vehu Shaul, a previously unrecorded and unrecognized contribution to the literature of anti-assimilationist polemics, was written in the form of a running commentary on the text of Song of Songs. The Yiddish title of the book is Di Gelihene Hok (The Borrowed Ax) and the commentary on each page is divided into Hebrew and Yiddish sections ... Harkavy's polemic is unique in that is speaks of the Jews in the small rural towns of New England ... Much of his polemic concerns the religious life of small Jewish communities such as Nashua ....Unlike Weinberger [who concurrently wroate about the Jews in New York] who held out some hope for the American Jewish future, Harkavy saw none” (Sh. Goldman [1993-1], 185, 188, 192) . Harkavy writes, "Having dwelt in this land for a number of years and having seen the disgraceful behavior of my people-they have torn up and stomped upon the essentials of their faith and 'there is no one to save them'-and, having considered the leadership of this people: its rabbis, ritual slaughterers, cantors, communal officials and synagogue presidents, I could no longer restrain myself. I had to make public what has weighed so heavily on my heart" (pp. 1-2, trans. In Sh. Goldman [1993-4) , 185) . Appended to this work is "a witty and vitriolic poem entitled The Clock [pp. 104-11] ... The poem, which appears in both Hebrew and Yiddish versions, employs the metaphor of the ticking clock. The hands of the clock are the rabbis of America-who are continually contending with one another" (Sh. Goldman [1993-4], 193) . Sefer ve-hu Sha'ul was positively reviewed in Ha-Mitzpah, Nr. 6, p 24. Contents include: Shir ha-shirim -- ha-Moreh sha? Ah -- Der zeyger. SUBJECT(S) : Judaism -- United States. Jews -- Cultural assimilation. Commentaries. Bible. Song of Solomon -- Commentaries. OCLC lists 5 copies worldwide (NYPL, JTSA, YIVO, Yale, HUC) . Wear and pen marks to blank wrappers, old tape repair to blank front endpaper and title page. Otherwise good paper and binding, Good solid condition. A scarce contemporary examination of Jewish life in early 20th Century Small-Town New England. (KH-8-68)

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