Auction 104 Part 1 Rare and Important Items
Oct 21, 2025
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Auction 104 Part 1 Rare and Important Items
Oct 21, 2025
Opening: $1,000
Estimate: $3,000 - $4,000
Sold for: $2,000
Including buyer's premium
Vikuach Shivah Harim / Dialogo Dos Montes – Dialogue of the Mountains, a play for Shavuot by Reuel Jesurun (Paul de Pina). Amsterdam: Israel Mondovy for Gerhard Johan Janson, 1767. Portuguese and Hebrew.
Rhymed allegorical play, based on the Midrash describing the argument between the mountains before the giving of the Torah, first performed on Shavuot 1624 for the inauguration of the Beit Yaakov synagogue in Amsterdam. Accompanied by seven sermons on the giving of the Torah, "delivered by the mountains", by R. Shaul HaLevi Mortera (Spinoza's rabbi). The text was proofread by R. Yitzchak de Eliyahu Chizkiyahu HaKohen Belinfante, who also added an introduction and poem. The beginning of the book features an approbation from R. Shlomo Shalem – a rabbi of Bulgaria and rabbi of the Portuguese Talmud Torah community in Amsterdam – and introduction of publisher R. Aharon de Chaves. The work is dedicated to David de Aharon Jesurun, probably one of the author's descendants.
At the beginning of the present copy are bound two additional pages – a declaration (Manifesto) by the publisher R. Aharon de Chaves, telling of the ancient provenance of the play and the cause for its new printing, describing its contents and style, and calling for the public to support its distribution. To the best of our knowledge, these leaves are bibliographically unknown.
The author,
Reuel Jesurun (1575-1634), was born Paulo de Pina to a family of Marranos from Lisbon. In 1599 he traveled to Rome to join a Christian order, but on the way there he met the physician Elijah Montalto who dissuaded him. After three years of wandering in Brazil, he settled in Amsterdam in 1604, where he openly returned to Judaism and adopted his Hebrew name. He was a leader of the Beit Yaakov community in Amsterdam, an editor of the community's ordinances and officiated in the Talmud Torah. After marrying his daughter Sarah to the poet and grammarian Moshe son of Gidon Abudiente (1610-1688), he immigrated to Hamburg, where he passed away.
Reuel Jesurun (1575-1634), was born Paulo de Pina to a family of Marranos from Lisbon. In 1599 he traveled to Rome to join a Christian order, but on the way there he met the physician Elijah Montalto who dissuaded him. After three years of wandering in Brazil, he settled in Amsterdam in 1604, where he openly returned to Judaism and adopted his Hebrew name. He was a leader of the Beit Yaakov community in Amsterdam, an editor of the community's ordinances and officiated in the Talmud Torah. After marrying his daughter Sarah to the poet and grammarian Moshe son of Gidon Abudiente (1610-1688), he immigrated to Hamburg, where he passed away.
[12], 100 pages + [2] leaves at beginning of volume (declaration by publisher). Approx. 19 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains. Creases. Minor marginal tears to first two leaves. Inscriptions on endpapers. Bookplate. Leather binding with gilt inscriptions and decorations, with original cardboard binding. Peeling and wear to leather binding; tears across spine.
See: Kayserling, Biblioteca Española-Portugueza-Judaica, Strasbourg 1890, p. 90.
Bookplate of Mozes Heiman Gans.
Category
The Portuguese Community in the Netherlands and Its Diaspora – Books and Manuscripts
Catalogue Value
Auction 104 Part 1 Rare and Important Items
Oct 21, 2025
Opening: $1,000
Estimate: $2,000 - $3,000
Sold for: $3,250
Including buyer's premium
Sedur Berachot, Orden de las bendiciones, Conforme el uso del K.K. de España [Year-round Sephardic-rite book of blessings]. Amsterdam: Shmuel Soeiro, son of Menasseh Ben Israel, 1650. Spanish.
Year-round order of blessings and prayers, including Passover Haggadah, counting of the Omer and more. On last leaf, list of prayers based on order of appearance.
Fine copy.
36 leaves. 14.5 cm. Good condition. Light stains. New parchment binding.
Bookplate of Mozes Heiman Gans.
Rare edition. Not recorded in NLI catalogue.
See: Harm Den Boer, Spanish and Portuguese Editions from the Northern Netherlands in Madrid and Lisbon Public Collections, Vol. 22, No. 2 (Autumn 1988), pp. 97-143, no. 63.
Not recorded in Alfei Menashe catalogue, 1927.
Category
The Portuguese Community in the Netherlands and Its Diaspora – Books and Manuscripts
Catalogue Value
Auction 104 Part 1 Rare and Important Items
Oct 21, 2025
Opening: $1,000
Estimate: $2,500 - $3,000
Sold for: $3,000
Including buyer's premium
Orden de las Oraciones Quotidianas (order of prayers for weekdays and Shabbat, Rosh Chodesh, Chanukah and Purim). The Hague: C. Hoffeling for Selomoh de Mercado & Jahacob Castello, 1734. Spanish.
Spanish siddur for weekdays, Shabbat, Rosh Chodesh, Chanukah and Purim. Miniature format.
Fine engraved title page by D. Coster.
In last pages, calendar for the years 5495-5530 (1734-1769), listing Hebrew and civil dates for beginning praying for rain outside Eretz Israel, for each year.
This siddur is the first Jewish prayer book printed in The Hague. At the time it was printed, The Hague was home to a small Sephardic community numbering only two hundred members.
The present siddur contains the first printed translation of the famous piyyut Lechah Dodi by R. Shlomo Alkabetz (see: H.P. Salomon, Lekha Dodi, The American Sephardi, V, 1-2, pp. 33-42).
[1], 292, [6], 293-533, [6] pages. Approx. 7 cm. Gilt edges. Light, high-quality paper. Good condition. Stains. Old leather binding, with color endpaper. Light wear to binding. Fabric case (with defects).
Bookplate of Mozes Heiman Gans.
Category
The Portuguese Community in the Netherlands and Its Diaspora – Books and Manuscripts
Catalogue Value
Auction 104 Part 1 Rare and Important Items
Oct 21, 2025
Opening: $1,000
Estimate: $2,000 - $3,000
Sold for: $4,250
Including buyer's premium
Orden de leccion de Tora, Nebihim y Quetubim [Order of study of Torah, Neviim and Ketuvim, for the night of Shavuot and Hoshana Rabba]. Amsterdam: Mordehay de Is. Levy Montesinos, 1734. Spanish.
Printed entirely in red ink.
Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Amsterdam was home to a large Sephardi community. Many of its members were descendants of Marranos who emigrated from Spain and Portugal a century after the expulsion. The present book was printed for the members of this community who were not familiar with the Hebrew language.
[56] leaves. 15 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains. Wear to margins of some leaves. Small marginal tears and open tears to several leaves (tear affecting text to one leaf, without loss). New leather binding, with minor defects.
Bookplate of Mozes Heiman Gans.
Category
The Portuguese Community in the Netherlands and Its Diaspora – Books and Manuscripts
Catalogue Value
Auction 104 Part 1 Rare and Important Items
Oct 21, 2025
Opening: $1,000
Estimate: $2,000 - $4,000
Sold for: $3,000
Including buyer's premium
Letter from Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Brooklyn, New York, 27th Av 1952.
Typewritten on the Rebbe’s official stationery, with his signature – "M.Schneerson"; with handwritten additions.
The letter is addressed to a Chabad Chassid "of Sephardic ancestry". After his marriage, he had sought a rabbinic position, and was evidently compelled to shave his beard off to garner the approval of the leaders of certain American communities. The Rebbe attempts at length to dissuade him from this course of action, supporting him with words of faith, conviction, fear of G-d and Chassidic teachings. The Rebbe begins by noting that the secretary R. Chaim Mordechai Aizik Hodakov had presumably offered him a position in the Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch, and promises to mention him and his family in his prayers "when I will be at the gravesite" (i.e. in the gravesite of his father-in-law, the Rebbe Rayatz).
The Rebbe goes on to express his deep grief over what he had done, explaining – based on the Zohar and Chassidic teachings – that the beard is man's image of G-d, corresponding to the Attributes of Mercy and serving as a conduit for material livelihood: "…How dismayed I was to see you at the Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch office trying to force your divine soul to remove the image of G-d from your face, G-d forbid, and to shave off and remove the thirteen Tikunei Dikna that correspond to the thirteen Attributes of Mercy, which are the very conduits of livelihood, as explained in the Zohar and Chassidic thought in a number of places. And elaboration is superfluous, especially for one of Sephardic ancestry, those who always cleaved to study of the Zohar unopposed…".
The Rebbe also attempts to give a favorable explanation of the deed, as possibly meant to facilitate the attainment of a rabbinic position: "…Now perhaps your intent in doing this was, seeing that you saw and considered what the Rabbis said, that providing a person with a livelihood is as difficult as the splitting of the Red Sea, you thought that perhaps you should make G-d's job easier… by imitating the external features of the non-Jews, whereby you would be more easily granted a rabbinic position… But it is easy for anyone to see that it is the contrary of simple faith to say that by relaxing observance of the mitzvot, which is to distance oneself from the Source, you would thereby attain great bounty…".
The Rebbe goes on to mention his studies in the Tomchei Temimim yeshiva under the Rebbe Rayatz: "May the power invested in you by my teacher and father-in-law the Rebbe… as his student and Chassid, assist you in abandoning the above erroneous thoughts… This behavior contradicts not only divine intellect but also human intellect, since every Jew believes that it is specifically G-d Who is the master even in this physical and material world, and only He is the one who determines the sustenance of each person and his family…".
The Rebbe concludes with a blessing for "success, spiritually and physically, which go hand in hand for Jewish man and woman".
In the margins of the letter – in a later addition and in different ink – the Rebbe added six handwritten lines with references about shaving the beard to books of the Tzemach Tzedek: Responsa Yoreh Deah 93; novellae on Makot chapter 3; Piskei Dinim, Yoreh Deah 181-182; Derech Mitzvotecha II, 221; and Amudei Arazim by R. Yeshayah Asher Zelig Margaliot (Jerusalem, 1932).
[1[ leaf. 28 cm. Good condition. Folding marks. Minor stains. Minor tears to margins and folds (tear slightly affecting text at center of leaf).
The present letter is printed, with variants and omissions, in Igrot Kodesh (VII, 1791).
Category
The Lubavitcher Rebbe – Manuscripts and Letters
Catalogue Value
Auction 104 Part 1 Rare and Important Items
Oct 21, 2025
Opening: $1,200
Estimate: $2,000 - $5,000
Sold for: $3,000
Including buyer's premium
Public-private letter (an identical letter sent to several individuals) from Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Brooklyn, New York, Chanukah 1950.
Copy of a typewritten letter on the official stationery of the Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch (the educational organization responsible for spreading Chabad Judaism in the United States, directed by the Rebbe from its founding in 1941), with a copy of the Rebbe's signature, with several lines added by hand at the edge.
Written approx. ten months after the passing of the Rebbe Rayatz and about a month and a half before the Rebbe's accession to leadership of the Chabad movement – addressed to the shochet R. Avraham Sender Nemtzov.
The letter originally accompanied a booklet for Chanukah (with the discourse Baruch SheAsah Nisim by the Tzemach Tzedek, discourses and selected customs). In it the Rebbe stresses the need to illuminate the environment with the light of the Torah and Chassidic teachings, adding that the Rebbe Rayatz "here too taught the way for each and every one of us, for throughout every day of his life in this world, he would continuously light the candles of Jewish men and women… He would add a candle to his illumination from time to time and from year to year. This illumination of his was at the doorway of his home (but) the outer doorway, for the candles to illuminate the marketplace, a place of deep darkness for the sun had set…".
The Rebbe concludes "with a Chanukah blessing, for the light to increase in brightness until morning, that is the day of redemption", adding several references and sources in the margins.
On the margins of the leaf is a lengthy addition (over 40 words) handwritten by the Rebbe: "Possibly the virtue of the eight (days of Chanukah) is that it also rectifies the eight general types of terefot…". He references several sources that discuss the significance of the number eight (Berachot 4b, Likutei Torah and Siftei Kohen on the Torah). To the best of our knowledge, this addition has never before been printed.
[1] leaf. 28 cm. Good condition. Folding marks and light creases.
The main text of the letter is printed in Igrot Kodesh (IV, 845), without the handwritten addition.
Category
The Lubavitcher Rebbe – Manuscripts and Letters
Catalogue Value
Auction 104 Part 1 Rare and Important Items
Oct 21, 2025
Opening: $2,500
Estimate: $5,000 - $10,000
Sold for: $8,125
Including buyer's premium
Draft of a public-private letter for Lag BaOmer – two pages handwritten by R. Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Brooklyn, New York, Pesach Sheni, 1951.
Plain paper leaf, written on both sides in pencil (approx. 50 handwritten lines), with deletions, corrections, annotations, emphasis and additions in pencil and black ink. Some inscriptions added by secretary in preparation for print.
Draft of a public-private letter (an identical letter sent to several individuals), written for Lag BaOmer 1951, about three months after the Lubavitcher Rebbe's accession to leadership of Chabad.
In the letter, the Rebbe explains the significance and meaning of Lag BaOmer, based on the writings of the Arizal and Chassidic teachings: "This is the yahrzeit of R. Shimon ben Yochai – the festival of R. Shimon – who at that time reached the pinnacle of all his accomplishments… and the aspect of… the light of the Messiah shined in him".
The Rebbe goes on to explain the special significance of this day in our generation, based on Chassidic teachings: "And every year on this day, this condition [the light of the Messiah] reawakens… and more so in our generation… In the early generations permission was granted to reveal only to R. Shimon ben Yochai and his fellows, but in our later generations it is permitted and a mitzvah to reveal the inner meaning of the Torah… And happy is one who valiantly sets a fixed schedule for study of the inner Torah, for himself as well as in groups, and also to exert influence on others as far as possible… to know G-d and what He asks of us…".
The Rebbe concludes his letter with a "blessing and greeting" to all, and adds references and sources for the ideas discussed in the letter.
[1] leaf (two written pages). 21.5 cm. Good condition. Light stains.
The present draft is printed in Igrot Kodesh (IV, 1002) and Likutei Sichot (VII, p. 335).
Category
The Lubavitcher Rebbe – Manuscripts and Letters
Catalogue Value
Auction 104 Part 1 Rare and Important Items
Oct 21, 2025
Opening: $3,000
Estimate: $6,000 - $12,000
Unsold
Draft leaves of a public-private letter for Shavuot – three pages handwritten by Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe; with the printed letter enclosed. Brooklyn, New York, Erev Rosh Chodesh Sivan 1951.
Two plain leaves of paper: one written on both sides, and another leaf, cut, written on one side only – approx. 65 lines in pencil, with deletions, corrections, annotations and additions in pencil and black ink.
Draft of a public-private letter (an identical letter sent to several individuals), written for Shavuot 1951, about three and a half months after the Lubavitcher Rebbe's accession to leadership of Chabad.
In the letter, the Rebbe explains the significance and meaning of Shavuot – stressing education of boys and girls, who are the guarantors for the receiving of the Torah, and exerting influence over all Jewish boys and girls:
"…And these days, of the time of the giving of our Torah, are special days for a special people to receive the special Torah joyfully and internally. However, the Holy One Blessed is He said to Israel, 'Give me good guarantors that you will observe the Torah'… The guarantorship of the children… is the same today as it was then. Each one of us… must now do everything within his power to educate sons and daughters in the Torah way… And all of Israel are guarantors for each other… Everyone can certainly influence… the education of Jewish boys and girls in his immediate environment… and fight every act and matter that is liable to separate the boy and girl educated in the Torah way from this education…".
The Rebbe concludes his letter: "With blessings for receiving the Torah joyfully and internally", and adds references and sources for the ideas referred to in the letter (handwritten on the third page).
Enclosed: Mimeograph of the final version of the public-private letter, sent at the time to all the Chassidim.
[2] leaves (3 written pages). Approx. 21.5 cm and 9 cm. Overall good condition. Stains. Small marginal tears. Tape to verso of second leaf over handwriting. [1] leaf, official stationery (mimeograph). 28 cm. Good condition. Folding marks. Stain to verso.
The present draft is printed in Igrot Kodesh (V, 1029) and Likutei Sichot (VIII, p. 267).
Category
The Lubavitcher Rebbe – Manuscripts and Letters
Catalogue Value
Auction 104 Part 1 Rare and Important Items
Oct 21, 2025
Opening: $2,500
Estimate: $5,000 - $10,000
Sold for: $8,125
Including buyer's premium
Handwritten draft of Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe – "A part – in summary – of the discourse (Sichah) of Shabbat Mevarchim of Rosh Chodesh Sivan 1953". [Brooklyn, New York, Sivan 1953].
Plain paper, written on both sides (approx. 50 handwritten lines); one side in pencil, the other in blue ink, with deletions, corrections, annotations, emphasis and additions.
Part of a discourse from Shabbat Mevarchim of Sivan, regarding the preparation for receiving the Torah through peace and unity, emphasizing them as expressed through the Torah and mitzvot. The Rebbe exhorts the synagogue preachers to speak about love for fellow Jews and to explain that this is the preparation for the giving of the Torah.
"And practically: In the days from now until Shavuot morning… and especially while speaking publicly on Shabbat – one must make known, clarify and explain to Jewish men and women under one's influence that especially at this time, their duty and merit is to work on love of one's fellow Jew with special intensity… To explain… how love of one's fellow Jew is preparation for the giving and receiving of the Torah, and to make known and explain the saying of the Alter Rebbe that loving your fellow as yourself is a vessel for loving G-d… The saying of the Maggid must be publicized: 'Know what is above you' – know that everything that is above is all from you; it depends on each and every one. And especially the act of peace and love of one's fellow Jew, which the Baal Shem Tov declared a principle of Chassidut… And this is a preparation for receiving the Torah… Everyone must speak and publicize all the above, and especially those who deliver public sermons and speeches… And then we may all be confident… to merit… receiving the Torah joyfully and internally".
The Rebbe repeated this discourse at the Farbrengen of Shabbat Mevarchim Sivan, Behar-Bechukotai, 1953. After Shabbat the Rebbe proofread his talk (on the present draft leaf) and sent it for publication, and had them delivered to many Chabad Chassidim to distribute in their respective locations (see: Igrot Kodesh, VII, pp. 258 ff.; Likutei Sichot, II, pp. 297-299; Torat Menachem, VIII, pp. 169-171).
[1] leaf (2 written pages). 21.5X14 cm. Good condition.
Category
The Lubavitcher Rebbe – Manuscripts and Letters
Catalogue Value