Auction 105 Books | Letters and Manuscripts | Esther Scrolls and Jewish Ceremonial Art
Responsa of the Geonim – Prague, 1590 – Copy of Rabbi Yaakov Meir Biderman, Son-in-Law of the Sefat Emet
Opening: $300
Sold for: $1,250
Including buyer's premium
Responsa of the Geonim. Prague: Mordechai son of Gershom HaKohen, 1590. Second edition of the short Teshuvot HaGeonim, based on the Constantinople 1575 edition.
The book contains four hundred brief responsa, with an index. Most questions relate to civil law, while the others relate to marriage law. While this anthology of responsa preserves early Geonic material, most importantly fragments of Sefer HaMaasim Livnei Eretz Yisrael, it also contains many forged responsa (more than a hundred, over a quarter of the responsa in the book) which, rather than Geonic responsa, are adaptations of the Shulchan Aruch or other sources (see at length: S. Emanuel, Teshuvot HaGeonim HaKetzarot, in: Atara L'Haim, Studies… in honor of Professor Haim Zalman Dimitrovsky, Jerusalem 2000, pp. 439-459).
Title page illustrated with various figures of humans, angels and lions, with the printer's device of Mordechai son of Gershon HaKohen in the center, depicting hands offering the priestly blessing (see: Yaari, Diglei HaMadpisim HaIvriyim, no. 38, note on pp. 137-138).
On the verso of the title page is an introduction by the editor R. Shlomo Kabuli, and at the end of the book are concluding words and a poem by R. Menachem Egozi – both reprinted from the Constantinople 1575 edition.
On last leaves, stamps (two deleted) of R. Yaakov Meir Biderman of Warsaw.
R. Yaakov Meir Biderman (1870-1941; perished in the Holocaust), eminent Torah scholar, son-in-law of the Sefat Emet and editor of his books. Served as dayan and member of the Vaad HaRabbanim of Warsaw. R. Yaakov Meir was one of the prominent leaders of the Ger Chassidic community and presided over the R. Meir Baal HaNes fund in Poland. He and his brother-in-law R. Mendel of Pabianice were involved in mediating between the administrators of the kollel in a dispute that had ramifications on disagreements between the different Chassidic courts in Poland (Ger, Aleksander, Porisov, Amshinov and others). R. Yaakov Meir was the father-in-law of his brother-in-law the Imrei Emet in his second marriage (Rebbe Pinchas Menachem, the Pnei Menachem, was born from this marriage), and of the Beit Yisrael in his first marriage.
Handwritten glosses and additions to contents and other leaves, some in an early hand (approximately contemporaneous with the printing).
[46] leaves. 18.5 cm. Partly dark paper. Fair-good condition. Stains, including dampstains. Wear. Marginal tears and open tears to several leaves (mainly to last leaves), and small tear slightly affecting text of one leaf. Title page apparently supplied from another copy (margins repaired with paper filling). Stamps. New binding.
Chassidut – Books of Important Ownership
Chassidut – Books of Important Ownership