Tikunei HaZohar. Slavita (Slavuta): R. Moshe Shapira, [1826]. Name of book and location of printing in red.

Edition for customary reading of Tikunei Zohar during the forty days from Rosh Chodesh Elul until Yom Kippur. The chapter headings include the date for this study program. On leaf 3, title: "Introduction of Tikunei Zohar, for Erev Rosh Chodesh Elul". On leaf 19, title: "Another introduction to Tikunei Zohar – for first day of Rosh Chodesh". On p. 19b: "Tikun 1 – for second day", and so on throughout titles of book. On leaf 147 begins the study for day 40, with the title: "Eighth Tikun, for Yom Kippur".

Various stamps. On front endpaper and leaves 123 and 143, ownership inscriptions of "Yosef son of R. Eliyahu Aharon Ash Matratznik of Yelisavetgrad" [present-day Kropyvnytskyi, Ukraine].

[2], 3-50, 49-154 leaves (lacking leaf 155, with end of Kelalim at end of book). 20 cm. Fair-good condition. Stains, including dampstains. Wear and signs of heavy use. Light worming to inner margins of last leaves (after leaf 140). Close trimming, affecting headers with foliations of leaves 150-151. Stamps. Early binding, with leather spine, damaged and detached.

The Slavita Printing Press, Founded by R. Moshe Shapira, Rabbi of Slavita

The Jewish printing press in Slavita (present-day Slavuta, Khmelnytskyi Province, Western Ukraine) operated between 1790 and 1836. The founder of the printing press was the Rabbi of the city, R. Moshe Shapira (1762-1840), son of the renowned R. Pinchas of Korets. Already in his youth, he showed exceptional talent in scribal writing, tracing, carving and etching. His illustrious father encouraged him to develop his talent to master these skills. In the early 1790s, R. Moshe was appointed Rabbi of Slavita, yet he concurrently established his famous printing press, not wishing to utilize Torah as a livelihood. The typeface used in the printing press was fashioned by R. Moshe. Apart from the printing press, he also established workshops for production of the paper and type. A large portion of Slavita's Jews earned their livelihood honorably in one of the many divisions of the printing firm. Slavita books were reputed in the Jewish world for their beauty, splendor and accuracy; as well as for the owner of the press, R. Moshe, who was revered by the great Chassidic leaders. R. Moshe of Slavita was close to the Baal HaTanya, R. Shneur Zalman of Liadi, who commended him: "Exceptional in Torah, fear of G-d is his treasure, of holy descent". Sipurim Nora'im by R. Yaakov Keidner (Lviv, 1875) relates the wondrous account of how the Baal HaTanya assisted R. Moshe in attaining a government license for his printing press.

A special advantage of this printing press was that it only produced sacred books, and its type was never desecrated by secular books. Most of the workers were G-d-fearing Jews. According to a famous Chassidic tradition, the equipment and type were immersed in a mikveh before use (regarding the printing press in Slavita, see [in Hebrew]: Haim Dov Friedberg, History of Printing in Poland, Tel Aviv, 1950, p. 104; Ch. Lieberman, Ohel Rachel, I, New York, 1980, pp. 199-202; Sh.D.B. Levine, History of Chabad in Tsarist Russia, Brooklyn, 2010, p. 61). Chassidic masters especially prized siddurim and books printed in holiness in the Slavita press for prayer and study, especially the Tikunei HaZohar edition, which was meant for those with the custom to study the present book of Tikunim between Rosh Chodesh Elul and Yom Kippur.