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edelstadt, david
find the answer. He was fond of talmudic casuistry, and used
to say: “No one can arrive at the root and depth of a talmudic
problem without a master who teaches him pilpul”; but he
vehemently opposed the kind of casuistry which, in his time,
came to be known as ḥillukim, where students would engage
in fruitless debate to try to demolish one another’s arguments.
In his Ḥiddushei Halakhot, Edels’ explanations of talmudic
problems are generally in accordance with the view of Rashi
and the tosafists. His book gained such wide currency that an
understanding of Edels’ comments came to be regarded for
many generations as one of the qualifications of the average
talmudic scholar. The second part of his commentary is called
Ḥiddushei Aggadot, in which he attempts to explain the difficult
talmudic aggadot in a rational manner, sometimes taking
them as parables with interpretations which are at variance
with their literal meaning. He criticized, however, the prevailing
tendency of preachers to distort the plain sense of biblical
and talmudical passages. Although censuring “those people
who in the present generation give all their time to the study of
Kabbalah,” he nonetheless quotes extensively from kabbalistic
literature. He also made use of his acquaintance with Jewish
philosophy in his interpretation of talmudic aggadot.
He adopted a positive attitude toward the secular sciences,
considering them important for a fuller understanding
of Torah, and their acquisition as vital for learned Jews in their
disputations with non-Jews. His statements are sometimes
marked by a spirit of critical inquiry. He decides, for example,
that the Targum to the Pentateuch ascribed to Jonathan b.
Uzziel is not by him. He senses that the tosafot to the tractate
Yoma are different in style from those to other tractates. He
established that some statements or passages in Rashi’s commentary
and in the tosafot had originated as marginal comments
by students who had not understood the passage, and
in the course of time these comments had come to be interpolated
in the text. Edels reproved his contemporaries for making
light of certain precepts, e.g., those who drink to excess at
the melavveh malkah meal on Saturday night and so neglect
the recitation of the Shema upon retiring, and rise too late
the following morning for the statutory time for the reading
of the Shema and the recital of the morning prayers. He was
a sharp critic of social evils in the communities, such as the
dishonesty and egotism of some rich parnasim. He reproached
the rabbis of his time with overawing their communities for
motives which were not purely altruistic, and was irked by
the fact that “in these times, whoever possesses wealth is appointed
to public office for a price and is in constant pursuit
of honor.” In 1590 he participated at a session of the *Council
of the Four Lands which pronounced a ban on those who
purchase rabbinic office. Edels was held in high esteem by the
scholars of his day. Joel *Sirkes in his address to the leaders of
the Council of the Four Lands in Lublin, said: “You have in
your midst the greatest man of the present generation … with
whom to consult and deliberate.” On his tombstone, Edels is
described as “a holy man … exemplary in his generation …
whose fame traveled far and wide. His great work was a light
to the eyes of the Sages of Israel.” He was also highly regarded
by later generations. Jonah *Landsofer enjoined his sons to pay
close attention to the works of Edels, “because his writings are
amazingly terse and plumb the depths of Torah’s truth … The
spirit of God spoke through him, for without divine inspiration
it would have been impossible for a man to write such
a book.” Edels’ other works are Zikhron Devarim, novellae of
the group of scholars at Posen (published by his mother-inlaw
in 1598); a penitential prayer beginning with the words:
“El Elohai Dalfah Einai”; and a penitential prayer written in
memory of the Warsaw martyrs (1597).
His brother’s son, whose name has not been preserved,
made his way to Morocco, and apparently settled there. His
work Sha’arei Ḥokhmah, on aggadah and homiletics, is extant
in many manuscripts. In it he quotes his uncle and many of the
other great 17th-century scholars of Poland, including Israel
Spira, son of Nathan *Spira, whom he calls “my teacher,” and
Abraham Abele *Gombiner. He died before 1674.
Modern rabbinic teachers lament the forsaking of Edels’
talmudic commentary. In addition to the profundity of his
ideas, Edels’ work is instrumental in teaching the correct analysis
of the talmudic text.
Bibliography: Dubnow, Hist Russ, 1 (1916), 129–30; R.
Margulies, Toledot Adam (1912); S.A. Horodezky, Le-Korot ha-Rabbanut
(19142), 183–90; H.H. Ben-Sasson, Hagut ve-Hanhagah (1959),
index; J.M. Toledano, Sarid u-Falit (1945), 74f. Add. Bibliography:
Y. Barka’i, “Shitato ha-Parshanit shel ha-Maharsha be-Ḥiddushei
Aggadot,” dissertation, Hebrew University (1995).
[Shmuel Ashkenazi]
EDELSTADT, DAVID (1866–1892), Yiddish poet. Edelstadt
was born in Kaluga, the son of a cantonist. After the
Kiev pogrom of 1881, he immigrated to the U.S. as part of the
agricultural *Am Olam movement but settled in Cincinnati
to work in the garment industry, joined the anarchist movement
(which at the time wielded great influence among Jewish
workers), and became one of the first Jewish socialist poets,
initially composing radical poetry in Russian. In 1888 he
moved to New York and continued working in sweatshops,
writing increasingly in Yiddish. In works such as “In Kamf ”
(“In Struggle”), “Vakht Uf ” (“Awaken”), and “Mayn Tsavoe”
(“My Last Will and Testament”), Edelstadt called upon his
working-class audience to revolt against the upper classes and
seize the means of production. In 1890, he became a regular
contributor to and, a year later, editor of the newly founded
anarchist weekly Fraye Arbeter Shtime. His lyrics, sung in
sweatshops and on picket lines, depict the world’s imperfections
and the wondrous life to come after a social revolution.
After he contracted tuberculosis in 1891, he traveled to Denver
to recuperate but died there the following year at the age
of 26, becoming a romantic legend to the young Jewish labor
movement and a central figure, along with Joseph *Bovshover,
Morris *Rosenfeld, and Morris *Vinchevsky, of the *Sweatshop
Poets. His collected works were published in London in
1910 and in Moscow in 1935.
144 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6