Auction 61 - Rare and Important Items
Manuscript - Commentary of the Vilna Gaon to Tikkunei Zohar - Ca. 1820s - Copy Belonging to R. Chaim Katz from Pinsk, Rabbi of Safed, with Emendations in His Handwriting
Opening: $1,500
Sold for: $1,875
Including buyer's premium
Manuscript, commentary of the Vilna Gaon to Tikkunei Zohar. [Lithuania?/Safed?, ca. 1810s-1820s].
Neat Ashkenazic script. The first page bears the stamp of "the small Chaim ben Peretz Katz of Vilna, currently in Pinsk". Glosses and emendations, several in the handwriting of the scribe, and others in a different handwriting, apparently that of R. Chaim Katz, rabbi of Pinsk.
This manuscript is a section of the Gaon's great composition on Tikkunei Zohar. The manuscript contains a copy of the work, from the middle of Tikkun 69 until the end of Tikkun 70. The composition was published only many years later (Vilna, 1867), from various manuscripts and copyings (the publishers of the abovementioned edition write that they had the actual manuscripts of the Gaon through Tikkun 58, and thereafter printed based on "chosen copyings"). This manuscript is one of the earlier copings of this work and was apparently not available to the publishers.
R. Chaim Katz, son of R. Peretz HaCohen Rappaport of Vilna, officiated as rabbi of Pinsk for almost twenty years, from 1807. In 1826 he immigrated to the Holy Land, where he was among the heads of the Perushim community of the Vilna Gaon's disciples in Safed and Eretz Israel. He served as head of the Perushim's beit din in Safed, and oversaw the merger of the city's communities with the Chassidic community. He passed away in Tevet 1831. The night before his funeral, a strong rainfall miraculously filled all the city's dry water cisterns. This miracle is hinted at in his epitaph (see Toldot Chachmei Yerushalayim, III, Jerusalem, 1929, p. 170). His sons-in-law were: R. Yechiel Michel Weingarten, Rebbe of Liubeshiv (Encyclopedia L'Chassidut, II, p. 215), R. Meshulam Zalman ben R. Tzvi Hirsch of Lublin and R. Avraham Eisenstein of Drahichyn (see Kedem Catalogue 59, item 251).
[84] leaves. 20.5 cm. High-quality paper. Good condition. Worming with slight damage to text. Repaired tears to the first two leaves as well as the last leaf. Stains. Leaf [32] has a dampstain with damage to text. Pages [73b]-[74a] have a page and a half left blank, where the copying is incomplete (p. 158a in the printed version). New binding, slightly damaged.
Neat Ashkenazic script. The first page bears the stamp of "the small Chaim ben Peretz Katz of Vilna, currently in Pinsk". Glosses and emendations, several in the handwriting of the scribe, and others in a different handwriting, apparently that of R. Chaim Katz, rabbi of Pinsk.
This manuscript is a section of the Gaon's great composition on Tikkunei Zohar. The manuscript contains a copy of the work, from the middle of Tikkun 69 until the end of Tikkun 70. The composition was published only many years later (Vilna, 1867), from various manuscripts and copyings (the publishers of the abovementioned edition write that they had the actual manuscripts of the Gaon through Tikkun 58, and thereafter printed based on "chosen copyings"). This manuscript is one of the earlier copings of this work and was apparently not available to the publishers.
R. Chaim Katz, son of R. Peretz HaCohen Rappaport of Vilna, officiated as rabbi of Pinsk for almost twenty years, from 1807. In 1826 he immigrated to the Holy Land, where he was among the heads of the Perushim community of the Vilna Gaon's disciples in Safed and Eretz Israel. He served as head of the Perushim's beit din in Safed, and oversaw the merger of the city's communities with the Chassidic community. He passed away in Tevet 1831. The night before his funeral, a strong rainfall miraculously filled all the city's dry water cisterns. This miracle is hinted at in his epitaph (see Toldot Chachmei Yerushalayim, III, Jerusalem, 1929, p. 170). His sons-in-law were: R. Yechiel Michel Weingarten, Rebbe of Liubeshiv (Encyclopedia L'Chassidut, II, p. 215), R. Meshulam Zalman ben R. Tzvi Hirsch of Lublin and R. Avraham Eisenstein of Drahichyn (see Kedem Catalogue 59, item 251).
[84] leaves. 20.5 cm. High-quality paper. Good condition. Worming with slight damage to text. Repaired tears to the first two leaves as well as the last leaf. Stains. Leaf [32] has a dampstain with damage to text. Pages [73b]-[74a] have a page and a half left blank, where the copying is incomplete (p. 158a in the printed version). New binding, slightly damaged.