Solomon Buber

Solomon Buber
Solomon Buber (1827–1906)
Born	(1827-02-02)February 2, 1827 Lemberg, Galicia, Austria
Died	December 28, 1906(1906-12-28) (aged 79) Lemberg, Galicia, Austria
Nationality	Austrian

Solomon (or Salomon) Buber (2 February 1827 – 28 December 1906) was a Jewish Galician scholar and editor of Hebrew works. He is especially remembered for his editions of Midrash and other medieval Jewish manuscripts, and for the pioneering research surrounding those texts.

Solomon Buber was born at Lemberg (then Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria, now Lviv, Ukraine) on February 2, 1827. His father, Isaiah Abraham Buber, was versed in Talmudic literature and Jewish philosophy, and was Solomon's teacher in the latter subject; but for his son's Biblical and Talmudic studies he carefully selected competent professional teachers. Buber soon desired to conduct independent research and put the results in literary form—a disposition that proved valuable to Jewish literature.

At twenty years of age, Buber married and entered commercial pursuits. He rose rapidly to become Handelskammerrath, and auditor of the Austro-Hungarian bank, the national bank, and the Galician savings-bank. Buber was also president of the Geschäftshalle, vice-president of the free kitchen, and honorary member of a working men's union. For more than a quarter of a century was one of the directors of the Lemberg congregation; he was on the committee of the Bernstein foundation, and took a leading part in various philanthropic associations. He died in 1906.

While active in public life, Buber also devoted himself to learned research. The midrash literature had special attractions for him; and his activity in this field has been remarkable in extent. Its first result was an edition of the so-called Pesikhta de-Rab Kahana, with an elaborate commentary and introduction that exhaustively discuss all questions pertaining to the history of this old Aggadah collection. The book appeared as a publication of the society known under the name of Mekitze Nirdamim (Lyck, 1868). Buber's method of dealing with the difficult undertaking was new to scientific literature; and both introduction and commentary received the unstinted praise of the scholarly world. The introduction was translated into German by August Wünsche, and published by him with his translation of the Midrash, Leipzig, 1884.