Only edition of this essential work work on the Talmud and medicine (Talmud und Medizin) by Judah Leib Benjamin ben Israel (d. 1916). Ha-Talmud ve-Hokhmat ha-Refu’ah is universally referenced whenever a medical journal or scholarly article addresses the practice of medicine in Talmudic times or refers to early Jewish medical practices. The author, a doctor in Berlin wrote this work, which was published posthumously by his son Baruch Katzenelsohn. There is a Hebrew title page and, on the verso, a German title page. Facing the second title page is a photograph of Dr. Katzenelsohn. After a brief introduction from Baruch Katzenelsohn is the table of contents, listing the nine chapters comprising the book. They include lengthy introductory material, and such topics as an explanation of perek alu trefus, a review of the book trefus u-bedika, hemophelia, 248 limbs, names of leprosy, and tumah and toharah. There is also an explanation of terms in Hebrew, German, Russian, and Latin. At the end of the book are eighteen full page, many in color, detailed charts of the parts of the body discussed in Ha-Talmud ve-Hokhmat ha-Refu’ah. Among the charts are the expected depictions of anatomy, but also several of molecular structure. Dr. Katzenelsohn was not only a medical specialist but also a master of Talmudic medicine as evidenced by this book and, as already noted, by it remaining, almost a century after publication, a primary source for its subject.

 

Hebrew Description

מאת ד"ר י. ל. קצנלסון >בוקי בן יגלי<.

עמ' [4] הקדמה, מאת בן המחבר ברוך קצנלסון. עמ' 401-383: לוח (אוצר) השמות. לפי סדר א"ב ותרגום לגרמנית (באותיות עבריות), לאטינית ורוסית.