Goldschmidt, Lazarus

German writer; born at Plungiany, Lithuania, Russia, Dec. 17, 1871. He received his rabbinical education at the Talmudic school in Slobodki, near Kovno. In 1888 he went to Germany, and in 1890 entered the Berlin University, where, under the guidance of Professors Dillmann and Schrader, he devoted himself to the study of Oriental languages, especially Ethiopic. Goldschmidt, who at present (1903) lives at Berlin, has published the following works: "Das Buch Henoch," retranslated from the Ethiopic into Hebrew, and edited with introduction, notes, and explanations (Berlin, 1892); "Bibliotheca Aethiopica," a list and description of all the known Ethiopic prints (Leipsic, 1893); "Das Buch der Schöpfung ()," critical text, translation notes, etc. (Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1894); "Baraita de-Ma'ase Bereshit," the story of the Creation, ascribed to Arzelai bar Bargelai (Strasburg, 1894; this supposed Midrash is an Aramaic translation of the Ethiopic "Hexaemeron" of Pseudo-Epiphanias, edited by Trumpp in Ethiopic with a German translation, Munich, 1882, and the name of the supposed author is an anagram of Goldschmidt's Hebrew name, Eliezer ben Gabriel); "Vita do Abba Daniel," Ethiopic text, published, translated, and annotated in collaboration with F. M. E. Pereira (Lisbon, 1897); "Die Aethiopischen Handschriften der-Stadtbibliothek zu Frankfurt a. M." (Berlin, 1897). In the year 1896 Goldschmidt commenced the publication of the Babylonian Talmud (from the editio princeps), with German translation, variants, and explanations. Up to the present (1903) the sections Zera'im and Mo'ed have been published, together with a part of the section Neziḳin. Both the edition of the text and the translation have been severely criticized by David Hoffmann in Brody's "Zeitschrift für Hebräische Bibliographie," i. 67-71, 100-103, 152-155, 181-185. Goldschmidt replied in a pamphlet, "Die Recension des Herrn Dr. D. Hoffmann über Meine Talmudausgabe im Lichte der Wahrheit," Charlottenburg, 1896. See also "Theologische Literaturzeitung," 1896, pp. 477-479, and 1897, pp. 631-633.

D. L. Grü.