The author desires to express his appreciation of the work of the
translator, whose collaboration was all the more valuable as the
revision of the book had to be made, after an interval of almost
two years, under most unfavorable conditions, aggravated by the
distance between the writer and the place of publication. The
readers will themselves judge of the skill with which the
translator has acquitted herself of her task, and the author
gladly leaves to her the honor and the responsibility for the
translation.

But how can I express all I owe to M. Israel Levi, my honored
master? Without him this work would never have been begun,
without him I should never have dared carry it to completion. I
have contracted a debt toward him 'which grows from day to day,
and I discharge but the smallest portion of it by dedicating this
volume to the memory of his never-to-be-forgotten father-in-law,
the Grand-Rabbin Zadoc-Kahn. M. Zadoc-Kahn made a name for
himself in Jewish letters by his Etudes sur le livre de Joseph
le Zelateur, dealing with one of the most curious domains of
that literature in which Rashi was the foremost representative.
One of his last public acts was the appeal which he issued on the
occasion of the Rashi centenary. It is not a slight satisfaction
to me to know that these pages passed under his eyes in
manuscript.

M. LIBER

CHALONS-SUR-MARNE, March, 1906

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