Abraham Ben Elijah of Vilna - Secular Knowledge

Secular Knowledge

Abraham's interest in secular knowledge, quite rare in his environment, is also manifest in the writing of a Hebrew geography, Gebulot Ereẓ, published anonymously (Berlin, 1801). The book is, in fact, a translation of parts of George-Louis Leclerc de Buffon's Histoire Naturelle. He edited Menahem Mendel's index to the Zohar, Tamim Yaḥdaw, to which he added an introduction and notes (Vilna, 1808). Of his numerous manuscripts which contained glosses to the Talmud, Midrash, Shulkan 'Aruk, and explanatory notes to his father's works, a commentary on the introduction to the Tikkune Zohar (Vilna, 1867), a commentary on Psalms I-C באר אברהם (Warsaw, 1887), Sa'arat Eliyahu, exegetical notes and biographical data about his father (Jerusalem, 1889), and Targum Abraham, notes on Targum Onkelos (Jerusalem, 1896), have been published.

The last-mentioned were edited by his great-grandson Elijah, who calls himself Landau.