Auction 96 Early Printed Books, Chassidut and Kabbalah, Books Printed in Jerusalem, Letters and Manuscripts
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Kol Kore, to bolster Torah law and settlement of Eretz Israel, by R. Avraham HaKohen Friedman, son-in-law of R. Akiva Yosef Schlesinger, with an open letter by R. Akiva Yosef Schlesinger. [Jerusalem: Aharon Uziel Rokeach and Elchanan Tennenbaum, 1883?].
Printed without title page. At the beginning of the book is an open letter by R. Akiva Yosef Schlesinger, in support of his son-in-law, the author, followed by an introduction by the author.
The letter and introduction are in Hebrew, while the main text of the book is in Yiddish.
On last leaf, stamp of R. "Pinchas Tzvi Shenberger, born in Jerusalem".
12 pages. 20.5 cm. Somewhat dry and dark paper. Fair-good condition. Stains. Tears, including marginal open tears, repaired with paper filling. New binding.
Sh. Halevy, no. 434.
Tikun Midot HaNefesh, by R. Shlomo ibn Gabirol. Jerusalem: Aharon Uziel son of Gershon Sofer Rokeach and Elchanan son of Avraham Yitzchak Tennenbaum, [1883].
Missing final leaf, with Shabbat song by R. Yechizkiyahu HaKohen, Rabbi of Beled.
17 leaves. Missing last leaf. 18.5 cm. Good condition. Stains. Small marginal tears to several leaves, and minute open tear to last leaf, slightly affecting text. New leather binding.
Sh. Halevy, no. 438.
Mevaseret Tzion, supplement to volume 14, issue 11 of HaChavatzelet, Tevet 1884. Jerusalem: Yisrael Dov Frumkin (publisher of HaChavatzelet), 1884.
Supplement to HaChavatzelet newspaper, published monthly, news on current events in Eretz Israel. Four booklets were published in total: the supplement to issue 11 (the present item) and issues 15, 34 and 40.
[1], 32 pages. With printed front wrapper, but without back wrapper containing contents and an advertisement. 20.5 cm. Fair condition. Especially dry and brittle paper. Some stains. Tears, including open tears to margins of wrapper and many other leaves. Detached leaves and gatherings. New leather binding.
Sh. Halevy, no. 458 (one of four).
Mishlei Sharh, in Judeo-Arabic, translated by Meir Sason Sofer in Syria. Jerusalem: Agan, 1884.
Arabic translation (in Hebrew script) to the book of Mishlei.
20 leaves. 18.5 cm. Dry, somewhat brittle paper. Overall good condition. Stains. Small tears to several leaves, partially repaired with paper filling. Faded ink on one leaf. New binding.
Sh. Halevy, no. 460.
Commentaries on Tehillim by Yaavetz, R. Meir Arama and R. Ovadiah Seforno. Edited by R. Tzvi Hirsch HaKohen. Jerusalem: Yitzchak son of Tzvi Gościnny, [1884]. Date on title page given as 1885.
Partial copy, containing only first two leaves.
2 leaves. 25 cm. Fair condition. Stains. Many tears, including open tears, affecting title frame and text, repaired with paper filling. New leather binding.
Printing of this book was interrupted before completion. The Bibliography of the Hebrew Book (entry 000305840) records 12 leaves, while Sh. Halevy records 6. The present copy contains only the first 2 leaves, containing the approbations and the (incomplete) preface by the publisher.
Sh. Halevy, no. 443.
Benei Yitzchak, homilies for various occasions by R. Yitzchak Akshoti, with Kol Shachal, additional homilies, selections and novellae on the Talmud by his younger brother R. Shabtai Akshoti. Jerusalem: Moshe Peretz and brothers Avraham and Yitzchak Gagin, with Shmuel HaLevi Zuckerman, [1884]. Divisional title page for Kol Shachal.
On the top of the page is a dedication handwritten and signed by the author of Kol Shachal and publisher, R. Shabtai Akshoti, gifting it to Moshe Sapir.
At the beginning of Kol Shachal is a lengthy and highly interesting introduction by the author of the book and publisher of both books, R. Shabtai Akshoti, telling of his life events before immigrating to Eretz Israel in 1870.
Both books in one volume. Benei Yischak: [3], 135, [2] leaves. Kol Shachal: [2], 69, [2] leaves. Approx. 36 cm. Dry paper. Most leaves in good condition. Stains. Small marginal tears to several leaves. Marginal worming to some leaves. Old binding, with leather spine. Wear, damage and worming to binding.
Sh. Halevy, no. 445, 446.
Zecher Olam, letter by Rivkah Lipa daughter of R. Moshe Meishel Luria, sent to her family. Jerusalem: Yitzchak Gościnny, 1884. Second edition, Hebrew and Yiddish.
The booklet contains a letter written by Rivkah Lipa to her sons and brother in Cracow (as she goes on to note, some of them had immigrated to the United States and other countries), stressing her illustrious parentage, her trials and tribulations in Eretz Israel and her visits to gravesites of Tzaddikim in Eretz Israel, with encouragement to keep the Torah and mitzvot.
On the last leaf the author thanks R. Chaim Berlin and his wife, R. Zalman Levin and his wife, and many of her family members.
On the front title page is a handwritten dedication by the author, in Yiddish, with her signature: "from me, Rivkah Lipa daughter of R. [---] [Mei]shel Luria…". The dedication is incomplete due to tears on the leaf.
[1], 14, [1] leaves. Leaves bound out of sequence. Leaves 13-14 bound after leaf 8, and leaves 9-10 bound after leaf 12. 19.5 cm. Dry, brittle paper. Fair condition. Stains. Many tears, and open tears around margins of all leaves, affecting text to several leaves, including title page and endpaper (containing dedication), restored with paper filling (the entire book has been professionally restored). New leather binding.
Sh. Halevy, no. 450.
Printed booklet, Kol MeHeichal, polemic against the people of the New Yishuv who opposed the Halukka system of charity distribution in Eretz Israel. [Jerusalem: Yoel Moshe Salomon, 1885]. Printed without title page.
The booklet contains the printed signatures of about eighty leaders of the Ashkenazi Perushim and Chassidic communities.
The author of the booklet is apparently the famous traveler R. Yaakov Sapir. The author describes the economic contributions of the Old Yishuv in contrast to the passivity of the new settlers, and goes on to describe the strain on the Halukka donations in Jerusalem as a result of refugees from the pogroms in Russia and Romania in 1881.
This booklet raised much interest in its time, and was the Old Yishuv's official response to the polemic against the Halukka institutions.
8 pages. 20.5 cm. Dry, brittle paper. Fair condition. Many stains. Wear. Many tears, including open tears, partially repaired with tape. Old binding.
Sh. Halevy, no. 529 (who calls this "an especially rare booklet").
Recorded in the Bibliography of the Hebrew Book project based on a photocopy.
![El Cuento Maravioso [Marvelous Tale], anthology of stories in Ladino. Jerusalem: Shmuel HaLevi Zuckerman and partners, [1886]](https://files.kedem-auctions.com/files/Sale96/214_2.jpg "El Cuento Maravioso – Anthology of Stories in Ladino – Jerusalem, 1886")
![El Cuento Maravioso [Marvelous Tale], anthology of stories in Ladino. Jerusalem: Shmuel HaLevi Zuckerman and partners, [1886]](https://files.kedem-auctions.com/files/Sale96/214_1.jpg "El Cuento Maravioso – Anthology of Stories in Ladino – Jerusalem, 1886")
El Cuento Maravioso [Marvelous Tale], anthology of stories in Ladino. Jerusalem: Shmuel HaLevi Zuckerman and partners, [1886]. Two parts in two volumes.
Anthology of wondrous and ancient tales in Ladino, in two parts.
Two volumes. Volume I: 320 pages. Volume II: 184 pages. Approx. 16 cm. Dry, brittle paper in first volume. Fair-good condition. Stains. Wear. Tears, including tears to title page, and a large open tear to one leaf in volume II, affecting text, partially repaired with paper filling. Worming, affecting text. New bindings (non-uniform).
Sh. Halevy, no. 562.
![Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim, with Shetilei Zeitim commentary, by R. David Mizrachi of Sanaa. Jerusalem: [Hirschenson – HaTzvi]](https://files.kedem-auctions.com/files/Sale96/215.jpg "Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim – With Shetilei Zeitim Commentary – Jerusal")
Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim, with Shetilei Zeitim commentary, by R. David Mizrachi of Sanaa. Jerusalem: [Hirschenson – HaTzvi], 1886-1895.
Commentary on Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim, with main text and some glosses of the Rama. The author writes that he omitted glosses of the Rama that contradict the Shulchan Aruch as well as those with customs not prevalent in Yemen, although the printers added the glosses omitted by the author. The book includes two works by R. Yaakov Mordechai Hirschenson, Mei Be'er (incorporated into Be'er HaGolah) and Einot Mayim, until section 392, when the printing was interrupted in 1886.
[6], 97; 198, [1]; 156, [1] leaves. 25 cm. Dry paper. Good-fair condition. Stains. Tears, including small marginal tears to title page and open tears to last leaf, affecting text, repaired with paper filling. Worming, affecting text. New binding.
Sh. Halevy, no. 565.
Over 20 letters and documents on the rescue of rabbis during the Holocaust period and on sending aid packages to students of the Novardok yeshiva in Siberia. Eretz Israel, [1942-1948].
• Letter from R. Meir Karelitz (elder brother of the Chazon Ish) on rescue of R. Yosef Berkowitz (author of Chelkat Yosef, dean of the Maharsha yeshiva in Ostroh). Jerusalem, Av [1940].
• Letter from R. Chizkiyahu Yosef Mishkovsky, Rabbi of Krynki (on stationery of the Committee for Assistance to Rabbis and Yeshiva Students in Russia, Poland and Other Liberated Lands), on sending matzah packages. Jerusalem, 1945.
• Three letters from R. Shmuel Aharon Shedrovitzky, the Rabbi of Bialystok-Tel Aviv, to R. Bentzion Bruk, on rescue and sending aid packages to yeshiva students deported to Siberia. Tel Aviv, 1943-1944.
• Two letters to R. Bentzion Bruk, on rescue and sending of aid packages to yeshiva students – letter of the Committee for Rescuing Rabbis and Yeshiva Students (Jerusalem, 1943) and letter of the She'erit Yisrael yeshiva (Kfar Ata, 1943).
• Three letters from R. Eliezer Bentzion Bruk, dean of the Novardok yeshiva in Jerusalem, to R. Yitzchak Eizik HaLevi Hertzog and R. Yechiel Michel Kosovsky, Rabbi of Johannesburg – on rescue of R. Yisrael Movshovitz, mashgiach of the Novardok-Bialystok yeshiva, and R. Yitzchak Orlansky, lecturer in the Novardok yeshiva in Kovel; and on sending aid packages to Novardok-Bialystok yeshiva deported to Siberia with R. Yisrael Movshovitz and R. Yehudah Leib Nekritz. Jerusalem, 1942-1943.
• Four leaves (typewritten with handwritten additions) with a list of rabbis and students receiving aid packages and their locations, and a separate list of recipients of shoes, sweaters and medicine (Jerusalem, ca. 1944).
• Ten receipts received by R. Bentzion Bruk from the Committee for Assistance to Rabbis and Yeshiva Students in Russia, for sending aid packages with matzah for the yeshiva students (with their addresses in Kazakstan and the Caucasus). Jerusalem-Tel Aviv, Shevat 1945.
• Letter of the Jewish Agency's Search Bureau for Missing Relatives, sent to R. Bentzion Bruk, regarding a message received on his behalf from R. Daniel Engelberg residing in Italy (Jerusalem, 1948).
[26] leaves. Varying size and condition. Overall good condition.
Collection of over 150 letters (on postcards) sent by the students of the Beit Yosef Novardok yeshiva in Biržai who were deported to Siberia, to R. Eliezer Bentzion Bruk, dean of the Beit Yosef Novardok yeshiva in Jerusalem. [Siberia, Kazakhstan and North Caucasus (Russia), Łódź (Poland) and elsewhere, ca. 1942-1946]. Yiddish (a few in Hebrew and Russian).
The present collection is a rare and exceptionally comprehensive documentation of the students of the Novardok-Bialystok yeshiva during their deportation to the Siberian wilderness and in remote towns of Kazakhstan and the Caucasus, and on their way to Poland and the liberated zones at the end of World War II. In their letters, the students thank R. Bruk for sending aid packages from Eretz Israel, describe their arduous work, the difficult conditions and the pressing situation in the camps and kolkhozes; detail their lack of Jewish ritual objects and books; send greetings to their relatives and acquaintances abroad; seek accurate information on rumors of the Holocaust and what became of their friends and relatives; describe their hope for the defeat of the Germans and the victory of the Soviets and for the Jewish people to be avenged; write of their plans to leave Russia and return to their home in Poland on the way to Eretz Israel; and more.
The collection includes many letters from deans of the Novardok yeshivas and leading students, including: 11 letters from R. Yehudah Leib Nekritz, dean and director of the yeshiva, and his wife Rebbetzin Ettel Nekritz (daughter of R. Avraham Yoffen and granddaughter of the Alter of Novardok); three letters from R. Yaakov Galinsky (later the famous Maggid), a leading Torah scholar in the Novardok yeshivas in Pinsk and Kovel; two letters from R. Chaim Zaitchik, dean of the Novardok yeshiva in Buchach; letter from R. Yitzchak Orlansky, dean of the Novardok yeshiva in Pinsk and Kovel; eight letters from R. Refael Waldschein and his mother Rebbetzin Gittel Waldschein (wife of R. Yitzchak Elchanan Waldschein, the Shershover; sister of R. Chaim Shmuelevitz and granddaughter of the Alter of Novardok); letter of R. Moshe Roginsky, a dean of the Beit Yosef Kollel in Vilna; and many letters from yeshiva students (see Hebrew description for a partial listing).
The collection additionally includes: • Two letters with a Shanah Tovah blessing from the mashgiach of the yeshiva R. Yisrael Movshovitz and R. Yekutiel Fuchs. Prague, Tishrei 1946. • Lengthy three-page letter from R. Yechiel Fishkin of Rubiazhevichy (later Rabbi of Šiauliai) detailing some of his past during the Holocaust period and the news he received from the Novardok-Biržai yeshiva in exile in Russia (Ostia, Italy, Kislev 1945). • Letter from Rebbetzin Fruma Rappaport (wife of R. David Rappaport, author of Tzemach David). • Letter to R. Hillel Witkind. • Seven leaves (typewritten) with list of rabbis and students receiving aid packages, their locations and the date of sending of the packages. • Several envelopes.
Background
At the outbreak of World War I, when Russia annexed eastern Poland, including Bialystok where the Novardok yeshiva headed by R. Avraham Yoffen was located, the yeshiva students who refused to live under the Soviet regime fled to Vilna. When the Russians invaded Lithuania, the yeshiva students again fled to Biržai while attempting to attain visas to countries that were not occupied by the Germans or the Soviets. While R. Avraham Yoffen and a limited number of students managed to attain visas to the United States, the remaining students were offered Soviet citizenship; when they refused, they were deported to labor camps in Siberia (most of those students who were not deported were later murdered by the Nazis).
Some 60 yeshiva students were deported in two groups, one with R. Yehudah Leib Nekritz to Parbig and the other with R. Yisrael Movshovitz to Krasnoyarsk, both suffering from hard labor, harsh torture, starvation and illness, which, however, they bore with courage, continuing to study Torah and observe mitzvot in secret.
R. Movshovitz's group was released in 1941 and chose to settle in Merki, Kazakhstan, where they were obliged to perform hard and dangerous work in a kolkhoz where many died. R. Nekritz's group was released in 1944 and settled in a sovkhoz near Ipatovo. At the end of the war, all the deported yeshiva students left Soviet Russia for Łódź and various DP camps, later immigrating to the United States and Eretz Israel.
The two groups were first able to contact their yeshiva dean R. Avraham Yoffen in New York in 1942, who immediately began to arrange for aid packages with food, clothing and other necessities. R. Bentzion Bruk was one of the main initiators of the aid packages sent from Eretz Israel, and was also in continuous contact with the deported yeshiva students. The letters in the present collection, which come from the archive of R. Bentzion Bruk, were sent by the yeshiva students during these difficult years in exile in Russia.
Over 150 postcards. Varying size and condition. Filing holes.