Hanoch Albeck

Who was Hanoch Albeck?

Hanoch Albeck was a professor of Talmud at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel. He was one of the foremost scholars of the Mishna in his time and he was one of the founders of the scientific approach to the study of the Mishna.

Hanoch's father Shalom Albeck, known as the Talmudic scholar, was the editor of a number of works by Rishonim including Raavan, Meiri on tractate Yevamot, and HaEshkol by Abraham ben Isaac of Narbonne. Hanoch studied at the Vienna rabbinical academy and he received rabbinical ordination in 1905. In 1921 he received a degree from the University of Vienna. Between 1926 and 1936 Albeck taught in the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums in Berlin. In 1936 he emigrated to Mandatory Palestine where he was immediately appointed as professor and head of the Talmud department at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, a position he held for 25 years.

Albeck, who was a religiously observant Jew, published a number of books in Hebrew and German on rabbinical literature, including "Introduction to the Mishna", "Studies in Baraita and Tosephta", "Introduction to the Talmuds", and others. In addition, he published numerous articles in the journal Tarbiz.