ion of the
Talmud on Russian soil. Then followed another edition in the same place
(1808-1813), a third in Kopys (1816-1828), and a fourth in Slavuta
(1817-1822), and several others elsewhere.

The story of the Vilna-Grodno edition of the Talmud is interesting as
well as illuminating. It depicts the relation of the Jews among
themselves and to the Government. Begun in 1835, at Ozar, near Grodno,
an imperial ukase directed the removal of the work to Vilna, the
metropolis of Russo-Poland. When the publishers, Simhah Ziml and Menahem
Mann Romm, had completed their work in the new quarters, the copies of
the book were destroyed by incendiaries (1840). After some time, an
effort was made by Joseph Eliasberg and Mattathias Strashun to continue
the publication, but the Warsaw censor prohibited its importation into
Poland, where the bulk of the subscribers lived. To add to the calamity,
a feud broke out between the head of the Slavuta publishing company,
Moses Schapira (1758-1838), and the Vilna publishers. The publication of
the Talmud had always been supervised by the prominent rabbis of the
land, and their authorization was necessary to make an edition legal.
This the rabbi never granted unless the previous edition was entirely
disposed of. The Slavuta publishers claimed that their edition had not
been sold out when the Vilna publishers started theirs. The litigation
continued for some time, and was finally decided in favor of the Vilna
firm. The publishers of Slavuta, however, having the Polish rabbis and
zaddikim on their side, continued to publish the Talmud, regardless of
the protests of Rabbi Akiba Eger and the "great ones" of Lithuania. But
a terrible misfortune befell the Slavuta publishers. On account of some
accusation, the two brothers engaged in the business were deported to
Siberia, and their father, the head of the establishment, died of a
broken heart. This cleared the field for the Romms of Vilna, who
continue to prosper to this day, and have now the greatest Hebrew
publishing house in the world. "It is the finger of God," the pious ones
said, and studied the Talmud with increased devotion.[40]

The numerous Talmud editions indicate the demand for the work, and the
multiplicity of yeshibot explains the cause of the demand. We have seen
how the yeshibot destroyed by Chmielnicki were re-established soon after
the massacres ceased. Their number increased when the Hasidic movement
threatened to render the knowled