Shanah Tovah letter from Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Brooklyn, New York, Elul 1954.

Typewritten on the Rebbe's official stationery, with his signature: "M.Schneerson", and his handwritten additions.

Addressed to
R. Avraham Mokotovsky (Eliyahu Kitov; 1912-1976) in Jerusalem, with blessings for a Shanah Tovah and Ketuvah VaChatimah Tovah. In the valediction, the Rebbe added by hand the word: "Respectfully".

[1] leaf, official stationery. 21.5 cm. Good condition. Folding marks. Filing holes.

Letter of R. Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Brooklyn, New York, 7th Shevat 1976.

Typewritten on the Rebbe's official stationery, with his signature – "M.Schneerson", with his handwritten additions.

Addressed to
Rebbetzin Gita Feiga Kroll (daughter of R. Yaakov Landau Rabbi of Bnei Brak, and wife of R. Shlomo Noach Kroll Rabbi of the Hemed moshav. He acknowledges receipt of his letter, and says it will be read at the gravesite of his father-in-law, the Rebbe Rayatz. In the margins of the letter, the Rebbe made a handwritten addition relating to projects of spreading Chassidic teachings.

At the end of the letter, the Rebbe added by hand the words: "[With a blessing] for good tidings".

[1] leaf. Official stationery. 21.5 cm. Good condition. Folding marks. Light stains.

Maamar Baruch SheAsah Nisim (5664), with two dollar bills for charity, distributed by Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Brooklyn, New York: Kehot Publication Society, 1991. "Forty years of the Rebbe's leadership".

The discourse Baruch SheAsah Nisim was delivered by the Rebbe Rashab on Tuesday, eve of 20th Kislev 1903, and was recorded in writing by his son, the Rebbe Rayatz, with additional explanations. The discourse was first printed in this booklet, directly from the manuscript of the Rayatz, on the occasion of 10th Shevat – the yahrzeit of the Rebbe Rayatz and the day the Lubavitcher Rebbe took on the mantle of leadership. The booklets were distributed by the Rebbe along with two dollar bills for charity. Inscription on title page and margins of both dollar bills: "From the hand of the Rebbe".

The distribution ceremony of the present booklet is described in Kovetz LeChizuk HaHitkashrut – 29 (pp. 47-48). The Rebbe returned from the gravesite of the Rayatz and led the Maariv prayer, where the synagogue was especially crowded in anticipation of the distribution. The distribution was officially announced and took place next to the Rebbe's room for about three and a half hours.

Maamar Baruch SheAsah Nisim is a discourse by the Rebbe Rashab on the blessing SheAsah Nisim delivered in 1903. The fine binding is dated "10th Shevat, 1991". The discourse contains an in-depth explanation on the deeper meaning of the concept of miracles, and explains at length the difference between the revelation of divinity in supernatural miracles and in miracles concealed in nature, along with other foundational Chassidic concepts.

20 pages. 22.5 cm. Light green wrapper. Booklet and dollar bills in good condition.

Manuscript, Zimrat HaAretz – kabbalistic kavanot for prayer, and Kesef HaKipurim – tikun for a plague, by kabbalist R. Avigdor Azriel. [Jerusalem, between 1777-1797].

The present manuscript is the copy of the author R. Avigdor Azriel, containing his kabbalistic works – Zimrat HaAretz and Kesef HaKipurim. The first work (Zimrat HaAretz) was mostly written by one writer, in Oriental semi-cursive script, apart from three leaves in the middle (41-43) written in another hand, in Oriental rounded cursive script (Hebron style, resembling the handwriting of the Chida). The second work (Kesef HaKipurim) was written entirely in the second hand. Both writers were likely kabbalists of the Beit El yeshiva in Jerusalem, peers of the author.

At the beginning of each work, the author added a title page text in his handwriting and with his signature. The text of the first title page begins: "I, a lowly creature, made this booklet, small in quantity, and named it Zimrat HaAretz, regarding important practice, to do the will of our Father in Heaven and to rectify the Shechinah and bring the redemption nearer…", and at the end: "So says the servant of G-d, Avigdor Azriel" (calligraphic signature). Text of second title page: "I, the small one of Eretz Israel, made this booklet as a tikun for plague, may it not come to be, I called it Kesef HaKipurim, and I collected all the teachings of the Arizal… and also gathered some Segulot and added my own innovations… So says the servant of G-d, Avigdor Azriel" (calligraphic signature).

On p. 11b, gloss handwritten by author.

The present manuscript was written after 1777, the year of death of the author's teacher – the Rashash, whom he mentions with a blessing for the deceased, but before the author's own passing in 1797.

The two works were printed in Jerusalem in 1892 by R. Avraham Azriel, a descendant of the author, but the present manuscript contains many differences from the printed version in organization and text.

We know of several corresponding manuscripts which were also copied for the author. One is JTS Ms. 2137, which comprises both of the above works, all written in the first hand of the present manuscript, and contains many glosses and corrections handwritten by the author. The first work begins with a title page handwritten and signed by the author, and the second work has a title page written by the copyist. The order and text of that manuscript accord with the printed text, and can be posited to be the manuscript used by the printers (the author's corrections are incorporated into the printed text).

A second manuscript, Benayahu Ms. K 159, contains only Zimrat HaAretz. It too is in the hand of the first copyist of the present manuscript, with a title page handwritten and signed by the author. This copy does not contain glosses by the author.

A third manuscript, JTS Ms. 3639, contains only Kesef HaKipurim, by the same copyist, with no title page and without the author's glosses (it may be the second part of the Benayahu Ms.).

As an example of a notable variant, the title page of Kesef HaKipurim in the first JTS Ms. reads (like the printed version): "I announce that all the kavanot written here are the very words of… the Arizal, and apart from him I wrote nothing, but rather arranged and expanded…". The present version, however, reads: "I collected all the teachings of the Arizal… and also gathered some Segulot and added my own innovations…".

The kabbalist
R. Avigdor Azriel (d. 1797), a prominent kabbalist in the Beit El yeshiva in Jerusalem, and a close disciple of R. Shalom Mizrachi Sharabi (the Rashash). He was also a member of the Chesed LeAvraham yeshiva in Jerusalem headed by R. David Pardo, author of Chasdei David on the Tosefta, and was later appointed a member of the Beit Din of the Maharit Algazi. Three of his halachic responsa were printed by the Maharit Algazi in his Simchat Yom Tov (Thessaloniki, 1794, sections 2, 9, 27). The Yisa Berachah, in his approbation to Zimrat HaAretz (Jerusalem 1892), describes him with epithets such as "a lofty personage, pious, holy and abstinent…".

[3], 2-40, [41-44]; 1-16 leaves; [15] leaves (total of 75 written leaves). 21 cm. Fair condition. Stains, including large, dark dampstains. Worming in many places, affecting text. New binding.

Handwritten leaf, document of sale of ownership of a courtyard. Tunisia, 1789-1835.

Large-format leaf, in Western cursive script.

The document mentions the dayan R. Natan Borgel (a leading Tunisian rabbi, author of Chok Natan) as the one who mortgaged the property to R. Eliyahu Lousada.

The document itself is dated Tishrei 1789, and is signed by witnesses. A confirmation on the margins is signed by the Portuguese community Beit Din of Tunis, with signatures of the members of the Beit Din, rabbis of the Portuguese community in Tunisia: R. Yitzchak son of R. David Alhayk, R. Avraham Abukara and R. Daniel Franko.

An added confirmation dated Shevat 1835 attests that the payment had been made in Iyar 1790, with calligraphic signatures of "Mordechai Darmon" (scribe of the Tunis Beit Din) and another witness (undeciphered).

R. Yitzchak Alhayk was the Rabbi of the Portuguese (Grana) community of Tunis (succeeding his father-in-law R. Mordechai Baruch Carvalho, d. 1785 in a plague; R. Yitzchak published his father-in-law's Meira Dachya, Livorno 1792). He officiated in Tunis until his passing in 1802, and was succeeded by R. Avraham Abukara, the second signatory of the document. R. Avraham Abukara the first ("HaGadol") passed away in 1818, and was succeeded by R. Daniel Franko, the third signatory of the document, until his passing in 1820.

[1] double leaf. 43 cm. Fair condition. Stains, including dampstains. Tears and defects, affecting several words. Folding marks.