Auction 85 - Judaica: Books, Manuscripts, Rabbinical Letters, Ceremonial Art
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Handwritten letter containing a request to support the settlements of the Gaon of Vilna's disciples in Safed and Jerusalem. Signed by R. Yisrael of Shklow and other leading disciples of the Gaon of Vilna. Jerusalem and Safed, Kislev 1830.
An appeal letter given to the emissary R. Tzvi Hirsh son of R. Yehuda, with a blank space for the emissary to fill in the name of the donor.
Signed by R. Chaim Kohen (previously rabbi in Pinsk, served as rabbi in Safed until his passing in 1831); R. Yisrael of Shklow (disciple of the Gaon of Vilna); R. Natan Neta son of R. Mendel (leader of the first group of disciples of the Gaon of Vilna who immigrated to Eretz Israel in 1809, d. 1846); R. Natan Neta son of R. Saadia (attendant of the Gaon of Vilna, d. 1849); R. Aryeh Leib son of R. Yosef Leon (head of the Ashkenazi Yishuv in Safed); R. Aryeh son of R. Yerachmiel Markus of Keidan (1800-1877; trustee of Kollel Perushim in Jerusalem and founder of the Hurva synagogue); R. Shlomo Zalman son of R. Ze'ev Wolf HaKohen (emissary for Eretz Israel, d. 1847 in Calcutta).
[1] leaf. 24 cm. Good condition. Stains. Marginal worming, not affecting text.
PLEASE NOTE: Item descriptions were shortened in translation. For further information, please refer to Hebrew text.
Tehillim, with the Be'urei Zohar and Metzudat Zion commentaries. Safed: R. Yisrael Bak, [1833].
One of the first books printed by R. Yisrael Bak in Safed, about one year after he established his printing press in the city.
On verso of the title page is the introduction of the printer R. Yisrael Bak with blessings for those who purchase books printed in Eretz Israel and especially this Tehillim. This is followed by another long introduction by R. Gershon Margaliot, who tells how he urged R. Yisrael Bak not to print the Kabbalistic commentary Be'urei HaZohar alone, rather alongside verses of Tehillim and his advice was heeded.
Kavanat HaMeshorer is printed at the beginning of each Psalm. The volume also contains prayers recited before and after reading Tehillim on weekdays, Shabbat, Yom Tov and Lel Hoshanah Rabbah and a prayer on behalf of the sick and Seder Pidyon Nefesh.
[4], 152 leaves. 15 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains. Tears and wear. Marginal open tears to title page and to other leaves, mostly at the beginning of the book, professionally restored, slightly affecting text. Worming to several leaves, affecting text, repaired with paper. Bottom margins of several leaves trimmed, not affecting text. Leaf 148 seems to have been supplied from another copy. Stamps. Inscriptions. New, elegant leather binding.
An inscription in Ashkenazi script appears on the title page above the place of printing, "Safed": "The dust of Eretz Israel here [Safed]". This phrase was used as a signature by R. Yisrael of Shklow, a disciple of the Gaon of Vilna, who lived in Safed at the time this book was printed (in our opinion, this is a later inscription, imitating R. Yisrael's signature).
PLEASE NOTE: Item descriptions were shortened in translation. For further information, please refer to Hebrew text.
Letter from the rabbis of Safed, addressed to Sir Moses Montefiore, signed by R. Shmuel Heller and R. Shmuel Abbou. Safed, Tishrei 1870. Hebrew.
Written by a scribe (in cursive Ashkenazic script), with the signatures of the rabbis (and the stamp of R. Abbou). In the letter, the rabbis report on the distribution of funds received from Montefiore (funds for the poor of Safed, for brides and ill people and for the institutions of Safed, Tiberias and Hebron).
Note in English on verso (presumably written by one of Montefiore's secretaries), summing up the rabbis' report.
R. Shmuel Heller (1786-1884), leading Torah scholar and physician, rabbi of Safed for sixty years.
R. Shmuel Abbou (1789-1879), rabbi of the Sephardic community in Safed and consul of France. Rebuilt Safed after the earthquake in 1837.
[1] double leaf (2 written pages). Approx. 29.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains. Wear and marginal tears. Folding marks.
PLEASE NOTE: Item descriptions were shortened in translation. For further information, please refer to Hebrew text.
Large collection of documents, printed receipts, promissory notes, letters and notes pertaining to the charity and welfare institutions in Safed. Ca. 1845-1936; most documents are from ca. 1870s-1920s.
The documents are signed by the community trustees and leaders in Safed: the dayan and posek R. Refael Zilberman; the heads of the Kosov-Vizhnitz Kollel – R. Moshe Charag [Zeiger] and R. Itamar of Seret; R. Yaakov son of R. Mordechai HaLevi; R. Kehat son of Efraim Fishel; R. David Yudel Auerbach (grandfather of R. Chaim Yehuda Leib Auerbach of Jerusalem); R. Zelig Adlerstein; R. David Segal; R. Yaakov of Rozhniativ; R. Baruch Kahana; R. Yosef Tzvi Geiger (renowned Safed painter and communal worker); and others.
The collection includes dozens of notes signed by the gabbaim, instructing the treasurer about payments to be made from the fund, for various communal and charity causes.
Also found amongst the items is a Prozbul contract from Elul 1875, signed by R. Shlomo of Tlust, R. Yaakov Yechiel [Schmerler?] and R. Moshe Charag.
96 paper items. Most bear various signatures. Size and condition vary.
PLEASE NOTE: Item descriptions were shortened in translation. For further information, please refer to Hebrew text.
Assorted collection of letters and documents pertaining to communal matters in Safed. From various writers and places: Vizhnitz, Amsterdam, Safed, Tiberias – ca. 1860s-1910s
The collection includes:
• Letter from the Vizhnitz Chassidic court, to R. Moshe Charag of Safed, from his son-in-law R. Todros Geiger, informing him of the governmental authorization to appoint the Imrei Baruch of Vizhnitz as administrator of the Kollel. At the foot of the leaf, letter handwritten and signed by R. Moshe Brumer (scribe and attendant of the rebbes of Vizhnitz). Vizhnitz, Adar II 1889.
• Interesting letter from R. Moshe Charag, to Rebbe Moshe [of Shotz-Vizhnitz?], about complaints received from Safed. He also mentions the battles against missionaries in Safed, and the state of the local hospitals. Safed, Iyar 1898.
• Official certificate in German, regarding the estate of a wealthy man from Sered, signed and stamped by R. Moshe Zeiger (Charag) and R. Yaakov son of R. Mordechai HaLevi Fertig. [Safed, ca. 1885]. • Six printed letters from the Pekidim and Amarkalim, completed by hand and signed by R. Avraham de Lima and R. Meir Rubens (two letters are stamped by R. Avraham Kohen Underweiser [Onderwijzer]). Amsterdam, 1880s-1910s. • And more.
19 letters (16 of them signed by hand). Size and condition vary. Overall good condition.
PLEASE NOTE: Item descriptions were shortened in translation. For further information, please refer to Hebrew text.
Emissary notebook, recording donations received for the general Talmud Torah (boys' school) and the Torat Eretz Israel yeshiva in Safed, led by R. Yaakov David Ridvaz. Safed, [ca. 1911].
Title page in calligraphic script; ornamental border in gold. Fine binding with leather spine. The title page and binding were made by the artist R. Yosef Tzvi Geiger of Safed.
Following the title page is an appeal in Hebrew and English, with signatures in Latin characters (and signature-stamps in Hebrew) of the heads of the administration: R. Hersch Rosenstein, R. Naftali Chanales grandson of the Baal Shem Tov, and R. David Segal. This is followed by an appeal from the yeshiva deans, signed and stamped by R. Yosef Konvitz (son-in-law of the Ridvaz), and with two stamps (including one signature-stamp) of R. Yaakov David Ridvaz.
The rest of the notebook comprises dozens of leaves of the yeshiva's official stationery, for recording lists of donors (most leaves are blank). Only four leaves were completed in handwriting with lists of donors in Hebrew and French (beginning January 1911).
[14] written pages and dozens of blank leaves (official stationery of the yeshiva). 22.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains and wear. Some tears. Colored edges. Binding with elegant leather spine. Fine endpapers. Placed in original slipcase, damaged.
PLEASE NOTE: Item descriptions were shortened in translation. For further information, please refer to Hebrew text.
Record book of the Jewish orphanage in Safed, founded in 1919 by R. Yisrael Hager of Radovitz. Safed, [ca. 1919].
Title page in calligraphic script, in gold, copper-red and black. Color ornaments (flower garland surrounding part of title; ornamental border). Fine, gilt-decorated leather binding. The title page and binding were made by the artist R. Yosef Tzvi Geiger of Safed.
The following leaves contain information about the founding of the orphanage by the rebbe of Radovitz, its objectives, and lists of the gabbaim and board members appointed by the rebbe.
Further in the booklet are various letters of recommendation.
[7] written pages, dozens of blank leaves. Approx. 28 cm. Elegant leather binding. Fine endpapers. Placed in original slipcase.
PLEASE NOTE: Item descriptions were shortened in translation. For further information, please refer to Hebrew text.
Gefen Yechidit, on matters pertaining to ethics and fear of Heaven, by R. Ze'ev Wolf Walldürn, with Luach HaChaim – brief health guidelines. Hanau, [1717].
Miniature format. Both works are rhymed.
Gefen Yechidit includes several poems by the author, including a lamentation for those murdered and taken captive in Podolia, 1676 or 1677. The persecutions documented in this lamentation are not known from any other source, see: Sefer Podhajce, pp. 24-25.
36 leaves. 11 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains and wear. Old binding.
PLEASE NOTE: Item descriptions were shortened in translation. For further information, please refer to Hebrew text.
Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin and Tractate Shavuot, with the classic commentators. Vilna: Widow and Brothers Romm, 1887.
Lengthy inscription in pencil on the front endpaper, in which the owner of this Talmud volume, a Jew from Czernowitz, describes the trials and tribulations he endured during WWI, beginning from his expulsion from Czernowitz, Bukovina far into Russia, his arrest, the danger he was in, the fellow Jewish exiles he met, and more. The inscription concludes with a list of the tractates he studied during his wanderings. The present tractates – Sanhedrin and Shavuot, were studied upon his return to Czernowitz in 1917.
Other inscriptions on the front endpapers.
124; 32; 50; 24; 60; 5; 8; 33; 18; 5 leaves. 40 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains. Tears to several leaves. Worming. Original leather binding, damaged.
Torah Study Under Perilous Conditions – During Expulsion and Imprisonment in WWI
The present Talmud volume contains a unique historic documentation from WWI, first hand testimony of a Jew from Czernowitz who was arrested, presumably during the Russian conquest, in the village of Prilipcze, Bukovina, in Adar 1915, and deported deep into Russia. He describes the difficulties he endured, including arrest and even danger of death. Eventually he was brought to Penza, Russia, where he was released. In Penza, he met some six hundred Jews who had also been exiled from Bukovina and Galicia. He stayed there for over a year, until he was granted permission to return to Czernowitz, which he reached in Kislev 1916. He found it conquered, empty of its inhabitants and ransacked. His sons and daughters were not there anymore, and he remained there alone. Throughout this difficult period, the author studied and completed eight tractates, including one which he studied in prison in Surazh (Chernihiv Oblast, Russia), as he records at the end of his inscription.
PLEASE NOTE: Item descriptions were shortened in translation. For further information, please refer to Hebrew text.
Printed booklet, "Or Gadol LaYehudim" / Beschryving van alle plechtigheeden, vreugde-gezangen, en gebeeden, verricht in de Portuguese Joodse Synagogue – account of the visit of William V, Prince of Orange, and his wife, Princess Wilhelmina of Prussia, to the Portuguese synagogue in Amsterdam. Amsterdam: Gerhard Johan Janson & Israel Mondovy, [1768]. Hebrew, Dutch and Portuguese.
Account of the visit (printed in Portuguese and Dutch), with the prayers read during the ceremony (printed in Hebrew and Dutch) and a long blessing by R. Shlomo Shalem, Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Amsterdam.
[4], 6-31 pages 25.5 cm. Wide margins. Good condition. Stains. Loose gatherings. Original card binding, with damage; front board detached.
PLEASE NOTE: Item descriptions were shortened in translation. For further information, please refer to Hebrew text.
Printed proclamation, announcement of the fundraising campaign for the community's charity fund, to be read out in the synagogues on Shabbat, Parashat Vayehi 1801. Amsterdam: Widow of Yosef Proops Katz, [Tevet] 1801.
An appeal to all community members to donate to the communal charity fund, to finance its various projects (distributing money to the poor, supporting the sick and burying the dead).
[1] leaf (printed on one side). 39 cm. Good condition. Stains and creases. Folding marks.
PLEASE NOTE: Item descriptions were shortened in translation. For further information, please refer to Hebrew text.
Derush Hesped, printed booklet – eulogy for Empress Maria Theresa, by R. Yechezkel Landau Rabbi of Prague, author of Noda BiYehuda. Prague, [1780].
As stated on the title page, the Noda BiYehuda delivered this eulogy two weeks after the death of Empress Maria Theresa, at the Maisel Synagogue in Prague. The eulogy highly praises the empress, although she was known for her hatred of Jews and caused great suffering to the Jews of Prague. At the same time, it praises her son and successor, Emperor Joseph II, expressing joy upon the commencement of his reign. For further information, see: Marc Saperstein, 'Your Voice Like a Ram's Horn': Themes and Texts in Traditional Jewish Preaching, Cincinnatti 1996, pp. 445-484.
6 leaves. 16 cm. Fair condition. Stains, dampstains and traces of mold. Wear. Worming, not affecting text. Abrasions to title page, affecting imprint. Deleted stamp on last page. Inscriptions. Leaves partially detached.
PLEASE NOTE: Item descriptions were shortened in translation. For further information, please refer to Hebrew text.