RATNER, DOV BAER

RATNER, DOV BAER (1852–1917), Lithuanian talmudic scholar. Born in Kalvarija, Lithuania, Ratner studied at the yeshivot of Mir and Volozhin, and acquired a wide secular knowledge by independent study. In St. Petersburg and Vilna he engaged in commerce, but later devoted himself entirely to scholarly research. Having made his literary debut at the age of 16, he contributed studies, learned notes, and book reviews to a variety of publications, particularly to Ha-Meliẓ. In 1894 his Mavo le-Seder Olam Rabbah appeared in Vilna and was followed three years later by a critical edition of the text of the Seder Olam Rabbah. From 1901 until his death, he published 12 parts of Ahavat Ẓiyyon vi-Yrushalayim, on the entire orders of Zera'im and Mo'ed of the Jerusalem Talmud, except for the tractate Eruvin, containing variant readings and explanations culled from the writings of early authorities. Selections from this work were subsequently included in the Vilna (Romm) edition of the Jerusalem Talmud. An early adherent of the Zionist movement, Ratner was among the Vilna community notables who welcomed Theodor Herzl on his visit to the city in 1903. He left his books to the Straschun Library of Vilna, of which he had been a director. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: L. Slonimski, in: Vilner Zamelbukh, 2 (1918), 186–91; T. Preschel, in: D.B. Ratner (ed.), Midrash Seder Olam (1966), bio-bibliography. (Tovia Preschel)