‘World’s Smallest’ Talmud Goes Up for Auction

9 cm Talmudic volume is dated to the 18th century.

By Ben Rappaport, United with Israel

A New Jersey auction will soon be putting up for auction a miniature Talmudic volume it says is the smallest ever printed.

The volume, Tractate Sukkah, which deals with laws related to the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, is estimated to have been printed in Frankfurt or Berlin in 1722.

It is expected to sell for 4-6 thousand dollars.

According to the Royal Auction House in Toms River, the volume measures “9 cm in size.”

The auction house noted the volume was created in a miniature format so that it can be carried around easily, “thereby enabling everyone to know the entire [tractate] and the relevant [laws] by heart.”

“A complete copy in a condition such as this is of utmost rarity,” the auction house added.

It said that it is unclear why this specific tractate was published in a miniature format, “however we can surmise that learning and memorizing Tractate Sukkah in such a way was highly common in Eastern Europe.”

As the edition was meant for the purpose of memorization, it does not include the commentaries typically included in a Talmudic volume.

The edition has the initials F.R. printed on its title page. F.R. has been understood to refer to “Fridericus Rex” or King Frederick William I of Prussia, suggesting the book might have been printed in Frankfurt or Berlin, which were both under King Frederick’s rule.

Noting a “unique anecdote which brings us back to the 18th century,” the auction house mentions that the original owner of the edition had included an inscription at the end of the volume listing five places where text had been trimmed off during the book’s binding, and adding the words that are missing.