Booklet handwritten by R. Mazal Tov Modena, index of responsa and halachic rulings of his teacher, R. Yishmael HaKohen of Modena, author of Zera Emet. [Modena, second half of 18th century or early 19th century].

Contains 87 sections, some including the conclusion of the halachic ruling.
Some of the halachic rulings documented here were printed in the three parts of Responsa Zera Emet, but others were apparently never printed, such as: section 27 (eulogizing a gentile king in the synagogue and using sacred objects), section 33 (that a widower marrying a widow should be particular to marry at the full moon), section 75 (a Torah scroll missing a dot) and sections 86-87 (a communal decision not to allow anyone but the posek to offer halachic rulings, intending to exclude a particular individual).

R. Mazal Tov Modena, disciple of R. Yishmael HaKohen, author of Zera Emet, and his successor as Rabbi of Modena. Leading Italian rabbi ca. 1770s-1830s, invited to Napoleon's Sanhedrin.

[4] leaves (5 written pages), bound in paper wrapper. 18 cm. Good condition. Light wear and creases. Inscriptions and tears to paper wrapper.

Manuscript, haftarot for Pesach and Shavuot, with a journal of family inscriptions and miraculous events, made by Shlomo son of Yitzchak Bianchini. Ferrara, first half of the 19th century.

The first part of the manuscript contains the text of the haftarot for Pesach and Shavuot, with the Aramaic Targum (verse by verse) and blessings over the Haftarah. Square and semi-cursive script, mostly vocalized. The Haftarah text includes cantillation. Floral decorations in several places.
In the second part of the manuscript, the scribe and owner, Shlomo Bianchini (Bianchino), documents family events, marriages and births, as well as miracles that occurred to him and members of his family between 1823-1838. Among other events, there is documentation of: his son Moshe's recovery from a fall from the bed in 1827; a collapse of part of the stairs of his house without affecting any family member in 1825; his marriage to Rivkah daughter of Nachum Neppi in 1823; the birth and circumcision of his son Shmuel Aviad Sar Shalom in 1824; the birth and circumcision of his son Moshe in 1825; the birth of his three daughters in 1827-1831 (including a dream seen by his wife); his daughter Stella's recovery from a fall in 1828; the passing of his father Yitzchak Chizkiyah Bianchini in 1833, and the birth of another son named after his father a year later; inscriptions on additional births; and more. The last leaves contain inscriptions in Italian from later years.

[34] leaves. 21.5 cm. Fair condition. Stains, wear and tears. Partially detached leaves. Original binding, damaged.

Manuscript, prayers and piyyutim for high holidays and festivals. [Pitigliano, Italy, 1865].
Title page decorated with colorful frame. Square Italian script.
See Hebrew description for contents of manuscript.

[65] leaves. 15 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains, including dark stains (food stains on Rosh Hashanah nighttime meal service). Two detached leaves. Old binding, with light damage.

Provenance: Collection of R. Menachem Emanuel Hartom, Ms. 8.

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.

Collection of 26 books printed in Hungary and Transylvania, during the Holocaust. The collection includes: Chassidic and ethical books, books on the Torah, halachah, Talmudic novellae and more.
During World War II, all the Hebrew presses in eastern and western Europe were shut down except for those in Hungary and Romania, which also faced heavy pressure. Hungarian Jews continued their religious life, studying Torah (to the extent possible) and even printing books, until the Nazis invaded Hungary in 1944, murdering hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews. Some of the books in the present collection are particularly rare.
See Hebrew description for list of books.

26 books in 27 volumes. Varying size and condition. Signatures and stamps. New bindings (except for one volume). The books have not been thoroughly examined, and they are being sold as is.