Auction 78 - Rare and Important Items
The Order of Prayer for Divine Service, Reform Prayerbook – First Edition Revised by Dr. Samuel Adler – New York, 1860-1863 – Two Parts in Two Volumes – With Handwritten Inscriptions, Including a Hymn on the Consecration Day of Temple Emanu-El in Curaçao (Caribbean Islands) – Rare
Opening: $5,000
Estimate: $8,000 - $12,000
Sold for: $6,250
Including buyer's premium
Seder Tefillah, The Order of Prayer for Divine Service – Part I: prayers for weekdays, Shabbat, festivals and special days; Part II: Yom Kippur prayers. New York: Thalmessinger, Cahn & Benedicks, 1860-1863. Two parts in two volumes. Hebrew and English (with some German).
Second edition of the Seder Tefillah siddur by the Reform rabbi Dr. Leo Merzbacher; and the first edition revised by Dr. Samuel Adler. Includes year-round prayers; Hebrew and English on facing pages. Opens from right to left. Handwritten inscriptions on the endpapers of both volumes, including a hymn for the consecration day of Temple Emanuel in Curaçao (see below).
The Seder Tefillah siddur is the first Reform siddur printed in the United States, featuring the English translation alongside the Hebrew text (instead of the usual German translation found in siddurim published for Reform communities of German origin).
The siddur was compiled in 1855 by Dr. Leo Merzbacher, first rabbi of Temple Emanu-El in New York. Although Dr. Merzbacher's siddur kept to a certain degree the traditional prayer text, omitting, as he puts it, only prayers containing "repetitions, incongruities, and obvious abuses" – Orthodox R. Yissachar Ber (Bernard) Illowy issued a ban on whomever utilized this prayerbook (Response to Modernity, a History of the Reform Movement in Judaism. Detroit, 2019. p. 337).
The present edition, which was revised and corrected by Dr. Samuel Adler, successor of Dr. Merzbacher as rabbi of Temple Emanu-El, distanced itself even more from the traditional prayer text and adopted radical changes to the structure and text of the prayerbook (although the title page of this edition states that it is the second edition, Dr. Adler's revision in effect produced a new edition of the siddur, very distant from R. Merzbacher's original text). Seder Tefillah revised by Dr. Adler became the official prayerbook used by Temple Emanu-El, until the official reform prayerbook – the Union Prayer Book was published in 1895. In the second half of the 19th century, the siddur was reprinted in several editions.
Eulogy for Hedwig Rosenbaum on the endpapers of vol. I (presumably a member of Temple Emanu-El), indicating the date of death – 22nd August 1863 (in English).
Bound at the end of vol. II are 16 leaves from the 1864 edition of the siddur, with hymns in German, and four leaves with English hymns. "Hymn on the Consecration Day of the Temple Emanuel, Curacao [in the southern Caribbean Sea], 12 Sept 1867" handwritten on the back endpaper.
Vol. I: XVII, 181 pages. Vol. II: [2] leaves, 397 pages; [6], 32, [1] pages. Approx. 17 cm. Gilt edges. Good condition. Minor marginal creases and tears to several leaves. Open tears to endpapers of vol. I (not affecting inscription); these leaves are partially detached. Stains. Browned paper in vol. II. Marginal tears to one leaf of Psalms at end of vol. II, reinforced with tape.
Rare. Vol. I is not recorded in OCLC nor in Goldman.
Singerman 1667. Deinard (Kohelet America) 966-968. See Goldman 48 (third edition, 1864).
Second edition of the Seder Tefillah siddur by the Reform rabbi Dr. Leo Merzbacher; and the first edition revised by Dr. Samuel Adler. Includes year-round prayers; Hebrew and English on facing pages. Opens from right to left. Handwritten inscriptions on the endpapers of both volumes, including a hymn for the consecration day of Temple Emanuel in Curaçao (see below).
The Seder Tefillah siddur is the first Reform siddur printed in the United States, featuring the English translation alongside the Hebrew text (instead of the usual German translation found in siddurim published for Reform communities of German origin).
The siddur was compiled in 1855 by Dr. Leo Merzbacher, first rabbi of Temple Emanu-El in New York. Although Dr. Merzbacher's siddur kept to a certain degree the traditional prayer text, omitting, as he puts it, only prayers containing "repetitions, incongruities, and obvious abuses" – Orthodox R. Yissachar Ber (Bernard) Illowy issued a ban on whomever utilized this prayerbook (Response to Modernity, a History of the Reform Movement in Judaism. Detroit, 2019. p. 337).
The present edition, which was revised and corrected by Dr. Samuel Adler, successor of Dr. Merzbacher as rabbi of Temple Emanu-El, distanced itself even more from the traditional prayer text and adopted radical changes to the structure and text of the prayerbook (although the title page of this edition states that it is the second edition, Dr. Adler's revision in effect produced a new edition of the siddur, very distant from R. Merzbacher's original text). Seder Tefillah revised by Dr. Adler became the official prayerbook used by Temple Emanu-El, until the official reform prayerbook – the Union Prayer Book was published in 1895. In the second half of the 19th century, the siddur was reprinted in several editions.
Eulogy for Hedwig Rosenbaum on the endpapers of vol. I (presumably a member of Temple Emanu-El), indicating the date of death – 22nd August 1863 (in English).
Bound at the end of vol. II are 16 leaves from the 1864 edition of the siddur, with hymns in German, and four leaves with English hymns. "Hymn on the Consecration Day of the Temple Emanuel, Curacao [in the southern Caribbean Sea], 12 Sept 1867" handwritten on the back endpaper.
Vol. I: XVII, 181 pages. Vol. II: [2] leaves, 397 pages; [6], 32, [1] pages. Approx. 17 cm. Gilt edges. Good condition. Minor marginal creases and tears to several leaves. Open tears to endpapers of vol. I (not affecting inscription); these leaves are partially detached. Stains. Browned paper in vol. II. Marginal tears to one leaf of Psalms at end of vol. II, reinforced with tape.
Rare. Vol. I is not recorded in OCLC nor in Goldman.
Singerman 1667. Deinard (Kohelet America) 966-968. See Goldman 48 (third edition, 1864).
Americana
Americana