Sefer Daas Doros - YitzyS Product Review

[YitzyS]

To solve a riddle posted tonight in the Riddle's thread, I pulled out a sefer I bought years ago called Daas Doros and looked up information in it.

Now, after skimming the sefer again, I recall how fond I am of it. It is a library of information, with numerous different lists inside, and it also comes with supplemental posters that are great.

I decided to do a TR-style product review, so that I can share why I enjoy the sefer so much.

The sefer is wide, short sefer, very unconventional but perfect for the numerous charts and graphs that make up most of the sefer



The bulk of the sefer is comprised of a few master lists, and then there is a wealth of miscellaneous information. The first list is a color list, about 60 pages, that has everyone from Briyas Haolam until today, organized by the year of their deaths. It contains much information about each person, which you can see on these pages. The early pages, which cover the times of Tanach, are interspersed with useful charts. Here are a few pages from that list.









The other master lists that make up much of the sefer are 1) a list of names in Tanach, which references where the person is found on the accompanying poster (I'll post pictures of the posters at the end):


2) a list of all seforim ever printed, which references to the page in the first part of the sefer where that person appeared:


and 3) a list of all names, anywhere in history, and where else in the sefer they appear:





The miscellaneous information is also fascinating. I'm posting here random pictures from that section

The generations of Taanaim:


A list of about 200 seforim that were published before the Gemara was finished:


The generations of Baalei Tosefos:


The pytanim of Klal Yisroel, when and where they lived


A list of all the Yeshivos in Hungary:





There is also a section with a bunch of maps, including the GRA's map of chalukas Eretz Yisroel:


and a map of all the exiles due to persecutions in Europe:




Now to the four posters. Two of them contain a list of all chassidish rebbes from the Besht and on. Here is a part of one of those charts:



Here is the chart of all people in Tanach:


Here is the chart of all yeshivos, as well as a few closer-up snapshots from it:

[Mf1]

Nice review!

[biobook]

Fascinating.  How do you use it?  Who wrote it?  Does he or she suggest what it might be useful for, why they wrote it? 

[EliJelly]

Hope that my local store can get one for me.

[YitzyS]

Who wrote it?

The author is listed as Rabbi D A Rozman, though I have no more info. There is big dedication inside to Rabbi Shlomo Rotenberg, the author of Am Olam, so perhaps he was the inspiration behind the book.

How do you use it? Does he or she suggest what it might be useful for, why they wrote it?

I don't know if anything is specified in the book. I like information like this, so I bought it, and I enjoy just looking at it and learning new information. I've also used it many times to check up things.

[YitzyS]

One minus to this book is that, contrary to the description on this website, the book does not list the date of birth of most people. This is understandable, because we do not know the year of birth for most of people in history. However, there are some seforim that attempt to list at least an approximate year for everyone.

[EliJelly]

One minus to this book is that, contrary to the description on this website, the book does not list the date of birth of most people. This is understandable, because we do not know the year of birth for most of people in history. However, there are some seforim that attempt to list at least an approximate year for everyone.

Would still be nice to list birth dates for the ones we do know. Gives so much clarity and context when reading about various relations between gedolim.

[yelped]

Thanks for the review! I actually have one, but didn't use it in years. It's very useful and informative.

[Yehuda57]

Is the English translation of this sefer called Biobook?


I'll show myself out.