The Adar issue of “Sinai” which recently reached these shores, marks the completion of the fiftieth volume of this excellent monthly, which is dedicated to Torah, Jewish scholarship and literature. In the twenty-five years since its establishment, “Sinai” has served as a forum for rabbis, writers and scholars from many countries, and the fifty volumes, which have appeared thus far, are a veritable treasure house of studies and essays in the many fields of Jewish knowledge.
Several years ago, on the occasion of the appearance of the fortieth volume of “Sinai,” its editor Rabbi Y. I. Maimon (Fishman) published a jubilee volume, in the introduction to which he explained why he had called his journal by the name of “Sinai.” It was soon after the death of Rabbi Abraham Yitzhak Hakohen Kook, that Rabbi Maimon undertook the establishment of a publishing house for Torah literature, bearing the name of the first chief rabbi of the rebuilt Land of Israel, and the publication of a scholarly monthly.
He desired to call the letter “Yerushalayim,” but the British mandatory authorities refused to authorize this name for a Jewish periodical, asserting that Jerusalem was dear not only to the Jews, but to other nations as well. Rabbi Maimon then suggested the name “Sinai.” This name too the British were not inclined to authorize.
“Was Sinai sacred only to the Jews? Had not the Christians erected a monastery on this mountain?” Thus claimed the British. Angered by the repeated refusal, Rabbi Maimon protested vehemently, stressing that the Jews, and only the Jews, were the heirs of the Law of Sinai. At last he was granted permission to use the name of “Sinai.”
He received the requested permission in the month of Nisan 5697 (1937) and he decided to publish the first issue of his new monthly the following Sivan, in the month in which the Law had been given to the Jews on Mount Sinai.
Since then “Sinai” has appeared without interruption for twenty-five years. Rabbi Maimon has been the author and editor of numerous volumes and as founder and head of the Mosad Harav Kook publishing house has planned the publication of hundreds of volumes. However, he takes special pride in the fact that he has launched and edited “Sinai” and thus given to numerous scholars the opportunity to publish the results of their studies. He himself has contributed to “Sinai” numerous articles and studies on a variety of subjects.
These include the publication from manuscript of the monumental “Yihuse Tannaim Va’amoraim” by Rabbi Yehuda ben Kalonymos of Speyer, who lived in the twelfth century. Several years ago Rabbi Maimon began to publish in “Sinai” his popular “Mide Hodesh Vehodasho,” in which events and personalities of Jewish history relating to each month are discussed. At the end of the year the articles of the preceding twelve months are published in book form.
Until now eight volumes of “Mido Hodesh Vehodasho” have appeared. Several months ago Rabbi Y. L. Maimon celebrated his 86th birthday. He is physically weak, but unbroken in spirit. During his long life, Rabbi Maimon has lived both in the world of Jewish politics and leadership and in that of Jewish scholarship. He has been an ideologist and a scholar, he has conducted political negotiations and has been a writer; he has been a member of the Israeli cabinet and a studious researcher. In his old age he has left the political arena and has devoted himself almost exclusively to the great love of his youth, which accompanied him in his long and outstanding political career: The Jewish Book. May he be granted many more years of fruitful labour in the field he loves so much.
Jewish Press April 27, 1962