Interesting Judaica Sale in N.Y.
Never before have so many Sifrei Kodesh been printed and reprinted as in our time. Never before has there been such a great interest in old Sefarim. The numbers of collectors is steadily on the increase. No wonder, therefore, that public sales of rare, old and interesting Hebrew volumes are conducted not only by established auction firms, but also by educational and charitable organizations, who do so in order to raise funds for their institutions.
After Pesach on Sunday evening, April 26th (Rosh Hodesh Iyyar) Yeshiva Ahavas Torah Baranovich of Jerusalem will hold a sale of important and rare Judaica, books, mansucripts, paintings and works of art at the Fifth Avenue Synagogue, Manhattan, N.Y.C.
Yeshiva Ahavas Torah Baranovich is a new Yeshiva in Ramat Shlomo, the Holy City’s newest Jewish residential quarter. The Yeshiva is headed by Rabbi Leib Baron (who also heads Merkaz HaTalmud in Montreal) a famous Talmudic scholar whose publications include Birkat Reuven, Birkat Yehuda, Netivot Lev and more. Rabbi Baron who has been a great teach of Torah for more than 50 years, was a close disciple of the late Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman in Baranovich. He founded Yeshivas Ahavas Torah Baranovich in Jerusalem to perpetuate the memory of the martyred community of Baranovich, of the Yeshiva and its teachers.
Rabbi Baron’s son, Rabbi Elchonon -named for Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman serves as Rosh Yeshiva at Ramat Shlomo. He recently published YeSamah Av, a volume of Hiddushim, which carries approbations by Rabbi Meshuallam Dovid Soloveitchik and Rabbi Moshe Shternbuch.
At the forthcoming public sale, 140 lots are to come under the hammer.
The prize pieces of the manuscripts are:
A handwritten festival prayer book: Keter Malhut. The prayer book, which is according to the old Roman rite, was written in Italy in the 15th century. The text is vocalized. The vellem manuscript was formerly in the David Sassoon collection. The opening bid has been set at $50,000.
Tur Orah Hayyim, written on paper in clear Sephardic writing in the 14-15th century. According to the well researched catalog, the copy differs from all the editions printed up to a short time ago. Only recently a Tur Orah Hayyim was printed which took into account the textual difference in this manuscript. The opening bid is $50,000.
Two ledgers of the Amsterdam Jewish community written on paper. Both are from the 18th century and contain much historical material. The opening bid for each of the ledgers is $40,000.
Manuscripts to be offered also include the commentary of the Gaon of Vilna on Divrei HaYamim. The catalog states that the text of the manuscript differs in quite a few places from that of the first edition, printed in 1820. According to Yeshaya Vinograd – the bibliographer of the Gaon’s writings – the manuscript apparently predates the first printing of the commentary.
Turning to printed books to be offered at the sale, we must first mention several incunabula: Early Prophets with the commentary of R. David Kimchi (Soncino, 1486), Latter Prophets with the commentary of R. David Kimchi (ibid. 1486) and R. David Kimchi’s Sefer HaShorashim in two editions, Naples, 1490 and 1491. Also offered is a single Daf of an incunabulum of R. Moshe of Coucy’s Sefer Mitzvot Gadol, printed in Rome as early as 1469.
Great interest should also arouse an incomplete copy of a prayer book for the entire year, according to the Polish Ashkenazic rite, printed in Karlsruhe in 1806, as well as a Book of Psalms (Amsterdam, 1778). Both volumes seemingly are not recorded in any bibliography.
Of the many Haggadaoth on sale, only a few can be mentioned here: The first edition of Don Yitzhak Abravanel’s commentary on the Haggadah, Zevah Pesah (Constantinople 1505, bound with the first editions of Abravanel’s Rosh Amanah and Nahalot Avot on Pirkei Avot, printed in Constantinople in 1505 and 1506, respectively); the Haggadah with the commentary Marbeh LeSaper by R. Tiah Weil, printed in Karlsruhe in 1791, and a Haggadah with English translation (London, 1877).
Letters by Rabbi Yitzhak Elhanan Spektor of Kovno, Rabbi Yitzhak Schmelkes of Lemberg (author of responsa Beth Yitzhak), Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld and by other Gedolei Yisrael are to be sold.
This promises to be a very exciting sale, indeed. We would have liked to describe several more of the very interesting lots to be offered, but space does not permit us to do so.
We must however, reproduce here, in short, an appeal to Ohavei Torha printed in the catalog:
We have discovered an incomplete copy of the lectures of Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman. These lectures were printed – in Baranovich – in separate booklets and later bound together. This Kovetz Shirum is almost unknown. The booklets were printed on highly acidic paper and our copy is crumbling and in need of chemical restoration and strengthening in order to preserve it. We take this opportunity to request a donation of $1000 to help preserve this rare book.
The auction will take place, as mentioned earlier on Sunday, April 26. The lots can be viewed on the preceding Thursday (April 23) at Congregation Gvul Yaabetz, Coney Island Avenue, Brooklyn, and on the day of the sale at the Fifth Avenue Synagogue, N.Y.C.
The Jewish Press, Friday, April 10, 1998