By Ben Marks
On his first daytime as a volunteer for theFriends of Knight Memorial Library , in March of 2014 , John Marks ( no relation ) was take to help finalise price for 200 volume and solidification that had been pick out and pre - priced for one of the library ’s twice - annual , vintage - al-Qur’an sales . One of these was a five - bulk , 19th - one C Torah , grandly titled “ The Law of God ” and edited and translated by Isaac Leeser . The publishing date was heel as 5605 in the Judaic calendar , which in the Gregorian calendar is anywhere from the pin of 1844 through the summertime of 1845 .
Marks gave the leather - bound book a quick glance , depend at a card abide a former unpaid worker ’s pricing billet ( a cursory Internet hunting on the claim had wrench up nothing ) , shrug his articulatio humeri , and priced them at $ 100 for the set . Fortunately , the Pentateuch — as the books of Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers , and Deuteronomy are also known — did not trade that weekend . On June 19 , 2015,the set goes up for vendue at Sotheby ’s in New Yorkwith a presale estimate of between $ 4,000 and $ 6,000 . ( Update : The final price was $ 3,750 . )
Normally Marks is not so casual with such details . He is , after all , a older contributing editor and columnist for “ Stereophile ” cartridge clip , who also does “ episodic ” work as a classic - music record producer . That stand for he ’s one of those people whose ears can recognise the dispute between the sound of recorded music played throughtubeversus solid - state amplifier , and he ’s enough of a authoritative - music aficionado to occasionally grow integral records of the stuff .
Above : Each of the remote thorn of the 1845 version of Isaac Leeser ’s “ The Law of God ” is titled “ The Pentateuch , ” which is another word for the Five Books of Moses , a.k.a . , the Old Testament . Top : The English and Hebrew facing pages of the Book of Genesis .
Every few weeks , Marks takes this passion for wading late in minutiae to the community library near his family in Providence , Rhode Island . There , he sifts through and helps organise the astonishingly impressive collection of donatedclassical LPs , as well as the lashings ofbooks(yes , literally tons ) that have been contributed to the Friends for their ongoing sale .
Like a lot of neighborhood - library support group , the Knight Friends cherry tree - pluck the best of the bounty citizenry regularly leave on their doorstep and put them up on eBay to aid offset the perennial funding shortfall that pest fiddling libraries across the United States . Marks is a cerise - picker , and while his effort do n’t completely close his library ’s budget gap , betray a few extra record and books is believably easier , and more fruitful , for Knight Memorial than cleanse up after a bake sales event . Especially if you occasionally turn up Bible like the Leeser Torah .
late , we speak with Marks about this important piece of Jewish American history , and what it tells us about Jewish life in mid-19th - one C America .
An example of a deed of conveyance page from “ The Law of God . ”
Collectors Weekly: How did you get involved with the Friends of Knight Memorial Library?
John Marks : I had recently moved into the neighbourhood , and it turned out that my landlord , Doug Victor , was in charge of volunteers for the library ’s book - sale activity . He said , “ If you want to meet people in the community , come down to the library and do some volunteering . ” I said , “ Well , if it ’s something I ’d be good at , sure . ” He say they had a donate collection of classic vinyl that went back to the early mono recording in the LP format , so he need me to look through them and see if some of the stuff and nonsense had note value — to hand them off to record shops or put them on eBay .
On my first day to help set up for a Saturday sales event , they also require me to price some record book , a total of 200 Good Book band and titles . So I attend through the books that had been choose . When I become to “ The Law of God , ” I assumed it was precisely the form of thing an upwardly wandering , 19th - century Jewish family would have had on exhibit in a prominent position in the aliveness room , like the ornate Douay - RheimsBiblesthat had been fixtures in 19th - century Lace - Curtain Irish rest home . think me , I speak from personal experience on that .
Douay - Rheims Bibles were sell door to door in Irish neighborhoods on credit—14 monthly payment of $ 1 each . They were huge , with brass clasps to keep them close down and a lacquered cover that looked like carved wood , except it was built up of stratum of dice - slew cardboard . you may still ascertain them on eBay . citizenry conceive their family heirloom is deserving $ 400 or $ 600 , but in excellent shape a Douay - Rheims Bible can be had for about $ 100 . believe it was the same sorting of affair , I value “ The Law of God ” at $ 100 .
The concealment of each of the five books in Leeser ’s “ The Law of God ” are bind in tooled calfskin .
Collectors Weekly: Then what happened?
mark : On Saturday , it went out for the live cut-rate sale . A couple hundred people walk right past it . Doug and I think it had potential , so we stood off to the side and watch , but nobody even reckon at it . So Doug asked me if I would put it up on eBay using my personal bill , since I buy and sell stuff all the time . I enounce , “ Sure , but I ca n’t do it straight off because I ’m not going to put something on my own eBay account unless I really know what I ’m talking about . ”
I must have been having writer ’s cube or something because I started bet into it that Monday . I started on eBay , looking up the complete sales , but there was nothing . I thought , “ This thing did n’t come from a UFO , permit ’s see what Wikipedia has to say . ” And it was there that I learned that “ The Law of God ” was the first English - Hebrew , face up - varlet transformation by a Jew rather than a Protestant Church . This was major ; this had to be deserving something . Since the book had been publish in Philadelphia , I did a search of all the Jewish booksellers in Pennsylvania , and sure as shooting enough , I found one that had sold a Leeser Pentateuch — for $ 6,500 .
Two hours later I was on the phone with a young man from Sotheby ’s . I told him the whole taradiddle , and he said , “ Now , Mr. Marks . Is this circle of books is in your ownership ? ” I say , “ Yeah , I ’m wait at it . ” He sigh and say , “ Are n’t you happy it did n’t sell on Saturday for a hundred dollar mark ? ” And I said , “ My young protagonist , let me recount you the truth . If it had sell for a hundred dollars on Saturday , we would ’ve retire to the break room and high - fived each other , because that would ’ve been the biggest sales agreement of the calendar month ! ”
In the early 1900s , “ The Law of God ” sat in a synagogue library , on the face of it unread .
Collectors Weekly: What makes this copy of ‘The Law of God’ so special?
Marks : To begin , we ’re talking about a rarefied set of books—theWorldCat.orgdatabase says there are only 27 complete set in library worldwide . And this was the first version , in deluxe binding with tool calf and beautiful marbled end theme and page edge . The Hebrew type is all hand - circle , with the diacritic scar added in the book line . My guess is that Leeser got the tabernacle big shots to fund his translation , so this rendering was in all likelihood produced as a fancy thank - you endowment , like a Kickstarter advantage . By the eighties , when photoengraving became a reality , somebody in Cincinnati did a straightaway knockoff of “ The Law of God . ” That you may bribe today for a hundred bucks , but not this .
Collectors Weekly: How is the Leeser translation different from others before it?
mark : There had been translations of the Torah in America , England , Holland , and elsewhere , but they had always been done by Protestants , who had one of two ( sometimes both ) docket . The first was to show that the Catholic translations were corrupt . The second was basically to proselytise — to amp up the story in the Old Testament so that they prefigured and telegraphed Jesus .
Collectors Weekly: In other words, to make the Old Testament a prequel?
mark : Yes , so they could go back and say , “ Jesus is the hope of the ages ! ” If you register Leeser ’s introduction , he admits that while he relied an awful flock on the King James translation , he has corrected the excusatory and proselytise tendencies of the Christian translators . This was the first rendering by a Jewish scholar . It made a swelled , big difference .
The end papers and boundary of “ The Law of God ” are attractively marble .
Collectors Weekly: How is Leeser’s translation regarded today among scholars?
Leeser went on to have an panoptic vocation as , for deficiency of a better countersign , a disputant . He had sharp elbows , no question , when it came to aver the rights of Jews to take part in American democracy and culture . His was the first encomium ever printed by a Jewish religious figure for an American chairman , Benjamin Harrison . And Leeser was so bold as to write to President Lincoln to request the appointment of a Judaic chaplain during theCivil War . Not surprisingly , perhaps , he had a patched exercise record . He did n’t rest in one place too long , but his “ The Law of God ” was the stock , high - quality Jewish cladding - page Torah translation in the United States until 1917 , when the Judaic Publication Society completed its Old Testament .
Collectors Weekly: Were there also prominent Jews in the South during the Civil War?
scrape : There are two factoids that should set all Southern Evangelicals back on their blackguard . First , the Secretary of State of the Confederacy was Judaic , a man name Judah P. Benjamin . And the only polity in the Earth that know the Confederacy was the Vatican .
The lettering inside the first volume of the solidification , dated 1863 , is to a spectacular New York Jewish loss leader describe Solomon B. Solomon . The writer is Solomon ’s father .
Collectors Weekly: The Leeser Torah in the upcoming Sotheby’s sale is inscribed to Solomon B. Solomon. Who was he?
Marks : Well , Solomon B. Solomon ’s father was from England , so Solomon probably get up learning that it was a sanctified deputation to prove to the infidel that Jews were every chip as good as citizen as they were . The role model for many untried English Jews was Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli , who was a convert from Judaism . As a resultant role , the so - called Lusitanian Jews in New York , the Sephardic Jews , regard the English Jews as the most assimilated and least reliable to continue practice the religion . That ’s in reality why Leeser did his translation . He was very involved in a Sunday schoolhouse so Judaic young person would n’t be tempted to become Presbyterians or Episcopalians , to give them something to socialize around on Sunday and match other gracious Judaic tyke . “ The Law of God ” would be their text edition .
In a room , Solomon B. Solomon was Leeser ’s objective audience . He was one of the biggest assimilators around , although he was also the publisher of a Judaic newspaper in New York City called “ The Jewish Messenger , ” president of West End Synagogue , and I believe he was a founder of Mt. Sinai Hospital and the Young Men ’s Hebrew Association on 92nd Street . The foundational coming together for what became the “ 92nd - Street ‘ yttrium ’ ” was hold in his livelihood elbow room .
One of Solomon ’s crowning social accomplishment was to get moneyed nouveau - riche WASPs , the robber barons — the people who profited from the Civil War and the railway — to take care a fancy - dress event phone the Purim Ball . So , Solomon was a part of that group of New York Jews who were loosening up , beginning to enjoy living . If you wait his newsprint , it listed four goals in every issue . The first positions Judaism as “ eminent than synagogism , ” which must have seemed a slippery slope to many Orthodox Jews at the sentence — pretty soon your son is lend home his fiancée , and she ’s light-haired , spicy - eyed , and is eat a ham - salad sandwich .
Collectors Weekly: Did Orthodox Jews view Leeser’s two-language translation as a kind of heresy?
Marks : Well , they almost for sure thought it was unneeded . But I would love to have it off how Orthodox Jews viewed the fact that the Hebraical characters of the Torah were “ kissing ” the English , and vice versa , as the pages folded together . Was that a dirt ? That ’s a bewitching rational interrogative , but I do n’t recognize the solvent .
An brocaded pestle , grounds of the set ’s years in a tabernacle depository library .
Collectors Weekly: What happened to Solomon’s copy of ‘The Law of God’?
soft touch : The books passed out of Solomon B. Solomon ’s hand sometime before 1904 , because there ’s a notation that a collector name Henry Woolf had put his name in one book in 1904 . Then , at some point later , Woolf or his heritor donated it to a synagogue library . There ’s one engagement stamp on the library card , but I intend that ’s the accession legal tender . I do n’t think anyone even calculate at it .
Collectors Weekly: If the books sell as you hope they will, are you worried that the donor will show up and say, ‘Hey, wait a minute’?
mark : Well , obviously we ’ve had this discussion with Sotheby ’s , but we ’ll cross that bridge circuit if we come to it . Knight Memorial Library has kind of become the book - donation magnet for Providence . I believe “ The Law of God ” come in something like a Chiquita banana tree box , along some other books on otherworldliness — by Carlos Castaneda , Ram Dass , that sort of stuff . There were lots of other books donated at the same sentence . We bear the books had been inherit from a grandparent , and that the proprietor was either downsize or just want to get rid them . “ The Law of God ” languish for months before one of our twice - a - year vintage - book sale add up up . I suppose we are on self-coloured ground to sell it . If a donor ever twist up and earn a claim , the Treasurer of the Providence Community Library can send them a letter stating the last take from the sales agreement , and the claimed donor can give that to the IRS .
Like a lot of community libraries across the United States , Knight Memorial in Providence , Rhode Island , is increasingly reliant on the efforts of voluntary to fill interruption in regime support .
Collectors Weekly: Hopefully this will be a major score for Knight Memorial, but what are most of your finds like?
Marks : We sold several other noteworthy record book that had been in that chemical group of 200 . One was a single volume from a four - loudness leather - bound solidifying of “ Don Quixote , ” publish in 1717 in Glasgow , Scotland . It was a well - used record book , but it just look so diachronic , and I call back I had priced it for the sale at $ 80 . After lots of wrangle and being up on eBay two or three time , it sold for $ 23 or $ 26 , something like that .
A better consequence were the four LPs I sell to a hombre in China for $ 400 — he also pay $ 265 in merchant vessels , tracking , and indemnity on top of that . The LPs included a first press of Joseph Szigeti ’s “ Unaccompanied Bach ” ( on the Bach Guild / Vanguard label ) , and other exchangeable curiosity . There ’s a huge amount of Graeco-Roman - music LP connoisseurship in China right now .
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