Shir ha-ma‘alot le-David (A Song of Ascents, of David)

Szmuel, Aszer, and Eljakim Helicz were the first printers of Hebrew and Yiddish books in Poland. In the first years of their press, established in Kraków in 1534, they published a Hebrew-Yiddish dictionary of biblical words; a legal guide to the laws of kashrut; a Yiddish legal handbook for women; and Yiddish ethical texts. In 1537, they converted to Catholicism in exchange for cancellation of debts and took new names: Paul, Andrzej, and Johannes. They were granted a royal monopoly on the printing and sale of Hebrew books in Poland, and when the Jewish community refused to purchase books from them, another royal decree forced the community to purchase their remaining stock of Hebrew books. Johannes and Paul printed books for Christians; Andrzej left the printing business.

Anshel of Kraków is believed to be the author of Merkeves ha-mishneh (The Second Chariot), a Hebrew-Yiddish dictionary of biblical words published in Kraków, Poland, in 1534. However, there is scholarly disagreement about who the author of the work was and even whether it is a work that originally dates from well before the sixteenth century.

Born in Kraków, David Darshan was a wanderer, preacher, rabbi, proofreader, and healer. He studied with the great rabbinic authorities of his days, Moses Isserles and Solomon Luria. Around 1556 he traveled to Italy. Upon his return to Kraków, he became the community’s darshan (preacher). Later he moved to Lublin, where he worked as an editor and proofreader. Shir ha-ma‘alot le-David (A Song of Ascents, of David) is a book of mixed genre: it contains sermons, responsa, sample letters, and poems, as well as biographical material. In 1574, Darshan published his Ketav hitnatslut le-darshanim (In Defense of Preachers).