Pinner, Ephraim Moses ben Alexander Suss-Kind
PINNER, EPHRAIM MOSES BEN ALEXANDER SUSS-KIND
PINNER, EPHRAIM MOSES BEN ALEXANDER SUSS-KIND (c. 1800–1880), talmudist. Born in Pinne (district of Poznan), Pinner studied Talmud under Rabbi *Jacob of Lissa. In 1831 he compiled an abbreviated form of the Talmud, Kiẓẓur Talmud Yerushalmi ve-Talmud Bavli. Pinner is best known for his ambitious scheme to translate into German the whole of the Talmud; he enlisted the moral support of some prominent rabbis, including Rabbi Moses *Sofer (Schreiber) of Pressburg, who eventually withdrew his name. It appears that Pinner maintained that Rabbi Nathan Marcus *Adler of Hanover (later of London) had undertaken to translate the difficult tractates Eruvin and Yevamot under this scheme, but Adler denied the existence of such an arrangement. In 1842 Berakhot was published in Hebrew with German translation. Czar Nicholas i lent his name to the project, together with other notables. The volume was dedicated to the czar, who had shown an unusual interest in the translation of the Talmud before Pinner's venture – and not with the best of intentions. No further volume appeared. Samuel David Luzzatto criticized the work somewhat adversely in Kerem Ḥemed (2 (1836), 174–82).
bibliography:
S. Sofer (ed.), Iggerot Soferim (1928), pt. 2, 73–78; R.N.N. Rabinowitz, Ma'amar al Hadpasat ha-Talmud, ed. by A.M. Habermann (1952), 246–8.
[Alexander Tobias]