A short time ago the last volume of Moshe Kosovksy’s Otzar Leshon Talmud Yerushalmi (Concordance of the Jerusalem Talmud) was published in Jerusalem.
The work, which is based on the 1524 Venice edition of the Jerusalem Talmud, is divided into three sections: 1) Otzar HaLashon– Thesaurus of the language – a complete vocabulary of the Yerushalmi with citations from all relevant passages. This section consists of eight volumes, which were printed from 1980-2002.
2) Otzar HaShemot– Thesaurus of Proper Names – which lists the names of all persons, places etc. occurring in the Yerushalmi
3) Otzar Midreshet HaMikra – Thesaurus of Biblical Midrashim – the full range of Halakhic and Aggadic Midrashim in the Yerushalmi, including all Biblical citations, indexed according to chapters and verses in the Bible, with corresponding references to the Talmudic text. The second and third sections of the concordance consist of one volume each. They were published in 1985 and 2004, respectively.
Moshe Kosovsky worked on the concordance for more than 40 years.
At the beginning of the eighth volume of the Otzar HaLashon section, Kosovsky gives thanks to the Almighty for having the privilege to create the concordance which would serve as a lighthouse for those who navigate in the sea of the Yerushalmi: “I pray that its light will shine for all who study the Jerusalem Talmud.”
Kosovsky also expresses thanks to the Israeli Academy of Sciences and humanities and to the Jewish Theological Seminary of America for having supported the publication of a concordance to the Jerusalem Talmud and to the support of the late Professors S. Lieberman, L. Finkelstein and E. Urbach who planned the compilation of a concordance to the Jerusalem Talmud and invited him to devote himself to its realization.
Moshe Kosovsky is the scion of a famous rabbinic family. His grandfather, Rabbi Abraham Abele Kosovsky of Volkovysk – to whose memory Moshe dedicated the second volume of his concordance– was the Rosh Beth Din of the first rabbinical court of Jerusalem’s Ashkenazi community.
His father, Rabbi Hayyim Yehoshua Kosovsky, was one of Jerusalem’s most prominent scholars. He was very close to Rabbi Shemuel Salant, published from manuscript Divrei Torah by Rabbi Israel Salanter, wrote novellae and comments on the Babylonian and the Jerusalem Talmud, a work on Hebrew grammar (Yad HaLashon) and a book on mathematics in Mishnaic Hebrew. His fame, however, rests on his concordances, which were hailed by rabbis and scholars throughout the Jewish world and which earned him the title “Father of the Concordances.”
His first work in this field was Otzar Leshon HaMishna (Concordance of the Mishna), the text of which he himself set in type at his home. The work appeared first in two volumes (1914-1920). A revised edition in four volumes was published in 1956-1960. In the introduction to the revised edition, Rabbi H.Y. Kosovsky acknowledges the assistance of his son Moshe.
In 1933-1940 Rabbi H.Y. Kosovsky published his Otzar Leshon Targum Onkelos (Concordance of Targum Onkelos) based on the Targum Onkelos text printed in Sabbioneta , Italy in 1557. It includes studies by Rabbi Y. L. Maimon, who stated that the concordance will shed new light on the Targum, and by the Hebrew language scholar Dr. Yitzhak Epstein. A revised edition of the concordance, edited by Moshe Kosovsky, appeared in 1986 (2 volumes).
Rabbi Kosovsky’s six volume Otzar Leshon HaTosefta (Concordance of the Tosefta) was published in 1933-1961. The last two volumes (1958-1961) were edited by Moshe Kosovsky.
Rabbi H. Y. Kosovsky was the recipient of various literary prizes. Twice he received the Rabbi Kook Prize and the Bialik Prize of the Municipality of Tel Aviv, and he was named an honorary citizen of Jerusalem.
He devised a method of his own which facilitated the compilation of concordances. He introduced his sons Moshe and Benjamin to this method. Moshe used it in combination with modern computer techniques in compiling his Otzar Leshon Talmud Yerushalmi.
(To be concluded)
The Jewish Press, Friday, August 6, 2004 p. 35
(Conclusion)
The first volume of Rabbi Hayyim Yehoshua Kosovky’s monumental Otzar Leshon HaTalmud (Concordance of t \he Talmud) appeared in 1964. Its publication was sponsored by the Israel Ministry of Education and Culture and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. The volume carries statements in praise of Rabbi Kosovksy by various Jewish personalities including the late Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaKohen Kook.
At the time of Rabbi Kosovsky’s death, in 1960, eight volumes of Leshon Otzar HaTalmud had been published. The work was continued by his son Benjamin, who at the request of his father, had compiled volume 4 (1958) Benjamin completed almost the entire concordance which consists of 41 volume of Otzar HaLashon (Thesaurus of Language), five volumes (1976-1983) of Otzar HaShemot (Thesaurus of Proper Names), and one index volume, Maftea’ah Otzar Leshon HaTalmud (1989). Benjamin died in 1978, and several of the volumes he had completed were printed after his death. (Vol. 41 of Otzar HaLashon was published in 1982 by Benjamin’s daughter Na’avah. The Mafte’ah was compiled by his son Eliyahu.)
In the years 1966-1975 Benjamin Kossovsky also compiled the 13 volume Otzar Leshon HaTannaim, separate concordances to the Halakhic Midrashim, Mekhilta,Sifra and Sifrei.
Benjamin Kosovksy, who had studied at Jerusalem’s Etz Hayyim and Hevron Yeshivot and had served in the Jewish Settlement Police and in the Israel Defense Forces, was the recipient of the Schoken Library Prize (1970); the Avi HaYishuv (Baron Edmond James de Rothschild) Prize (1972) and the Bialik Prize of the Tel Aviv Municipality (1976).
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Moshe is the oldest of nine children and had followed with great interest, from his early youth, his father’s work on concordances. He studied at Jerusalem’s Talmud Torah and Yeshiva Etz Hayyim, and is a graduate of the Mizrachi Teachers’ Seminary and the Hebrew University, where he received an MA. He was a member of the Haganah, served in the Israel Defense Forces and taught in schools in Israel and abroad.
For many years he was one of the readers of the “Daily Chapter of the Bible” on Israel Radio and of Pesuko Shel Yom on Israel Television.
He was named an honorary member of Tel Aviv’s Great Synagogue. He was awarded the Moshe Shapira Prize of the Holon Municipality and the Leib Jaffe Prize of hte United Israel Campagin (1984). In 1998 the JTS conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Hebrew Letters Hnoris cuasa.
Before he began his work on the concordance of the Jerusalem Talmud, Moshe Kosovsky studied the entire Yerushalmi with commentaries.
He invested great efforts to help the users of his concordance to find the words or phrases they were looking for without difficulty. For this purpose he defined the different meanings of all the homographs occurring in the Yerushalmi.
As mentioned earlier, the concordance is based on the 1524 Veice edition of the Jerusalem Talmud. Moshe Solovsky has lsited all the words and terms of this edition, though he has had some reservations with regard to some of its readings, and believes that in various places , the text was corrupte.d He has marked these various words and phrases with an asterisl In most cases he has sugged to emend the reading on the basis of parallel passages in the Yerusahlmi.
There are also instances in which he suggests a completely new reading and interpretations. For example:
The Yerusalmi relates in Tractate Kil’ayim that the Exilarch R. Huna was brought to the Land of Israel for burial. He was buried near Rabbi Hiyya, dehu min didhon (for he is one of them). In tractate Ketubbot of the Yerushalmi, the reading is dehu min dorhon (For he is of their generation). This is explained to mean that R. Huna and R. Hiyya were both Babylonians, or of the same generation and therefore they should be buried near each other. Moshe Kosovsky does not agree with this interpretation. He suggests to split both did hon and dorhan into two words: david havon. The reading in both places in the Yerushalmi would thus be Dehu Min David (for he is from David). The second word, havon, belongs to the sentence immediately following, havon amrin– and the meaning in both places quoted would be that R. Huna and R. Hiyya were both descendants of King David and that is why they should be buried near each other.
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Some time ago, on the occasion of the completion of the printing of Otzar Leshon Talmud Yerushalmi, the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities hosted an evening in Jerusalem in honor of the publication of the concordance. The well attended event was chaired by Prof. Hayyim Tadmor and addressed by Professors Yaakov Sussman Moshe Assis and David Golinkin. The speakers praised Kosovsky’s work, describing it as a major contribution to the study of the Jerusalem Talmud.
A few days ago, Moshe Kosovsky was informed by the Municipality of Tel Aviv that the next Honorary Bialik Prize, which is given to people for their life’s work, would be awarded to him.
The Jewish Press, Friday, August 13, 2004