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R' Aryeh Leib, the son of the Chafetz Chaim, wrote memoirs about his father. There, on page 59, he mentions a controversy regarding 'a Gadol amongst the Chassidim' who compiled a collection of all the sugyos in the gemara relevant to the mishnayos in taharos. This was not taken to kindly, the concern being it may look like the Amoraim has written a gemara on taharos. That controversy had a residual effect later on when the Chafetz Chaim published Likitei Halachos.

What was the name of that earlier work on taharos and who wrote it?

The following is the text of the memoir.

באמת בצאתו לאור נמצאו רבנים מערערים על תכונת החיבור הזה אם לא בקולי קולות, אמנם רגנו בקרב חבריהם ויש שפנו במכתבים למר אבא בתלונה ובמחאה על מעשהו זה באמרם כי עוד לא שכך הרעש של כמה מחכמי הדור על הגדול הידוע רבן של חסידים שהרהיב לחבר גמרא על משניות טהרות, אם שבאמת לא הוסיף מדיליה כלום רק קיבץ מש"ס השקליא וטריא שיש על כל משנה ומשנה אבל באשר עי"ז יטעו רבים וידמו כי האמוראים חברו גמרא על סדר טהרות והנה בא כבודו שמוחזק בכל ישראל לצדיק ועומד בפרץ נגד כל המחדשים והמקטינים ערך רבותינו הקדמונים וקיצר את הגמרא.

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    I take it you don't wear techelet :P
    – Double AA
    Apr 24 at 12:55
  • as an aside they shuld really reprint that maybe with some footnotes. Have they?
    – Dr. Shmuel
    Apr 24 at 14:18
  • @Double Well, not that type for sure.
    – user6591
    Apr 25 at 0:03
  • @Dr.Shmuel I feel like there isn't an audience for that. Most of the die hard Mishna Berurah followers don't even know it exists. Possibly because some of the content would be offensive to their senses? Admitting that family members helped him write the Mishna Berurah and Likitei Halachos. The Chafetz Chaim would skip maariv and sometimes mincha with a minyan when occupied with writing the M.B. He only wrote Tiferes Adam as apologetics to fanatical Lubavitchers who took offense to him writing in Nidchei Yisroel that ikkur din allows misparayim k'ein taar for a beard. Things like that.
    – user6591
    Apr 25 at 12:33
  • seforimblog.com/2022/03/… sshhh
    – Dr. Shmuel
    Apr 26 at 0:20

1 Answer 1

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The Radzhyner Rebbe, R. Gershon Henoch Leiner (1839-1890) composed the commentary 'Sidrei Tohorot' on Seder Tohorot, a compendium of the relevant pieces of gemara on the mishnayot of those masechtot.

It was published on Keilim and Ohalot, but, apparently, the work on the other masechtot of Seder Tohorot has been lost.

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  • Wikipedia indicates he wrote it on all masechtot though the others aren't extant.
    – Double AA
    Apr 24 at 12:52
  • @DoubleAA Thanks. Answer amended
    – Joel K
    Apr 24 at 13:11
  • you may be intersted in בית מדרש ומכון תלמוד טהרות, אשדוד tablet.otzar.org/#/b/179549/p/1/t/1/fs/0/start/0/end/0/c also see what rav shlomo goren wrote when he was 20, and then see end of intro to series above
    – Dr. Shmuel
    Apr 24 at 14:09
  • Supposedly one edition of this came out shortly after the false Yerushalmi on Kodashim, so every page was marked with a warning label that was a latter-day synthetic work, not the original Gemara. (Some printers have put the Chafetz Chaim's Rif-like edition on Kodashim material in with the Rif's chapters; only a matter of time before a lot of students won't know the difference.)
    – Shalom
    Apr 24 at 18:52

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