I have now received two opposing responses to my query about the whiting-out of the author's name on approbations in the sefer Me'ir Tefilah:
Yossi Galron and Ya'akov Aaronson give one view: Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 23:54:38 -0500 From: Joseph Galron <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Hasafran@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Subject: [ha-Safran]: A strange approbation Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Paul, I saw several books with the same pattern. The reason is modesty. The author does not want to publicize himself. In many cases I found help with Bar-Ilan online catalog and/or the catalog of the Jewish National and University Library (JNUL) in Jerusalem where the name was discovered. As for Meir tefilah - Bar Ilan has the only copy (up to now) and they did not reveal the secret. (I guess the author's name is Meir - first or last name) Hello Paul, From my experience with things like this there is a trend in the Haredi world to be modest and not put your name on the title page. I've never seem names whited out from hascamot. You can usually find out who the author is by looking on the verso of the tp and see where the sefer can be obtained. It's usually the author or one of his children. Hope this helps. Ya'akov And from Aviva Astrinsky another take: Paul, I am not familiar with the book per se. But from your description it appears to be a pirated edition, where all names associated with the book have been whited out. This looks like a deliberate act of vandalism, meant to disgrace the author. As you know, the haredi community it is a great honor to publish a book, and often the author gets to be called by the title of the book (e.g. Hafets Hayim, Shene Luhot ha-Berit=Shalah). Obliterating the name of the author, and the approbators, is tentamount to obliterating the person himself. What a shame! Aviva I tried to call the phone number. a) the number has been changed; b) there is no answer on the new number. If they author wanted anonymity, why the phone number which is preface by the statement: le-khol inyane ha-sefer na le-hitkasher le (for information about this book call ) I remain puzzled. Paul Paul Howard Hamburg Librarian for the Judaica Collection 438 Doe Library University of California Berkeley, CA 94720-6000 Tel: (510) 643-3353 Fax: (510) 643-6650 Cell: (510) 387-5827 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Website: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/doemoff/judaica/ Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) =========================================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: Hasafran @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listproc @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 @ osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: Current: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html History: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/history.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org
