ELIJAH BEN SOLOMON ZALMAN
(Gaon of Vilna). Tzurath Ha’aretz LeGevulotheha ...

(Gaon of Vilna). Tzurath Ha’aretz LeGevulotheha [commentary to selected verses from the Books of Joshua, Kings and Ezekiel, with text].

FIRST EDITION. Printed on blue tinted paper.
With important marginalia and corrections based upon the original manuscript by the Vilna Gaon (see below). ff. 44 (mispaginated as in all copies), lacking map. Slight worming (repaired). Modern calf. 4to. Vinograd, Shklow 124; Vinograd, Gr’a 22-24; D. Kamenetsky, Torath HaGr’a (2017) pp. 5-36 and 329-32.

Aryeh Leib ben Schneor Feivish, Shklow: 1802.

In this work the Vilna Gaon drew upon his extensive knowledge of geography and architecture in Biblical interpretation. The Gaon viewed such knowledge as an aid to Torah study and disapproved of the lack of interest in secular sciences that existed among certain Talmudists.
     This Shklow edition was not written by the Gaon himself but by his students. The second edition, published in 1820 by his grandson R. Ya’akov Moshe of Slonim, contains a number of variances from the first edition, some of which are based upon a manuscript. It is clear that the marginalia of the present copy were composed by individuals who had direct access to the Vilna Gaon’s original manuscript. Such notations appear here as:”bekthav yad,” “ken hu bekthav yad,” “ken kathuv bekthav yad” and in another hand “veken kathuv bepeirush Hagaon kethav yad” (f. 8a).
     Vinograd (Gr’a 22) records that a copy of this text with marginalia in the hand of R. Avraham the son of the Gaon is extant in a private collection. The two sample corrections that he cites are both found with the exact same language in the marginalia of the present copy.
     R. Dovid Kamenetsky, Torath HaGr’a (2017) published a critical edition of this work based upon different manuscripts. The marginalia in this copy contain variances and additions not recorded in the Kamenetsky edition. (See especially the marginalia on f.14 citing language from the Vilna Gaon’s manuscript writings on Divrei Hayamim).