Auction No. 102
Holy books, Chassidut, Manuscripts, Rabbinical & Admors' letters, Eretz Yisrael & Zionism, Americana, Judiaca & Prof. Albert Einstein
- (-) Remove Siddurim, Machzorim & Tehillim filter Siddurim, Machzorim & Tehillim
- (-) Remove Siddurim, Machzorim & Tehillim filter Siddurim, Machzorim & Tehillim
Siddur Safa Berurah, arranged in completion, with extreme precision, by me, Wolf Heidenheim. Roedelheim, 1825.
Specifications: [6], 3-4, 164, 4, 12 leaves, 18 cm.
Unique Features: Rare prayer book. This edition is without the Yiddish translation. With a long introduction from the author, and his signature at the end, followed by leaves of indexes.
On the title page: 12th edition. This edition is not bibliographically listed and is not found in the National Library.
Content: Shabbat zemirot were printed on the four leaves after the prayer book, and Shir HaYichud on the last leaf of the page count.
Condition: Fine. Aging stains. Original, used marbled paper binding.
Siach Yitzchak. Prayers for the entire year per the Polish customs, with English translation by Avraham bar Yitzchak Pereira Mendez. London, 1864. Magnificent copy.
Specifications: [5], 345, 50, XXVII pages, 17x10 cm. Additional title page in English. Hebrew and English on facing pages. Pg. 158-159 (and their parallel pages): "Hanoten teshuah l'melachim" in honor of Queen Victoria and the royal family. XXVII pages (printed from left to right): halachot, only in English. In the following years, a few other printings of this prayer book were printed, with the date of this printing.
Unique Features: Original leather binding with gold embossing. Gilt cut leaves.
Condition: Excellent.
Order of prayer for the entire year according to the customs of Germany and Poland. Sulzbach, 1824. Miniature.
Specifications: 264 leaves, 7.8 cm.
Background: Vowelized miniature prayer book. Arranged nicely and precisely. For weekdays, Shabbat and festivals and for the High Holy Days. With Pirkei Avot, and with the Torah portions for Mincha on Shabbat and Mondays and Thursdays. With Tefillat HaDerech and Tefillat HaYam.
Unique Features: Especially rare prayer book. Not found in the National Library, and to the best of our knowledge, also not found in the large public libraries around the world. Listed in Otzar HaSefer HaIvri, Sulzbach 564 according to Weinberg, Magnusw, Die hebräischen Druckereien in Sulzbach, 682, without having seen the book.
Condition: Very fine. Minimal aging stains. Gilded page cuts. Original leather binding with gold embossing. Abrasions on the spine.
Siddur according to the Italian community's customs. Livorno, [1861].
Specifications: 288 leaves, 9 cm.
Unique features: Includes prayers for the whole year, weekdays, Sabbaths, holidays and days of awe. Everything is vowelized. With the prayer for our Jewish brethren and conversos ... which are said after the Torah reading. The psalm 'LaMenatzeach' is printed in the shape of a menorah on the first page.
Condition: Fine. Aging stains. A few reinforcements. Simple binding.
Seder Tefillat Yisrael, with prayers for the entire year in a small volume. Prague, 1841. Especially rare prayer book.
Specifications: 192 leaves, 9 cm. The last leaves were not bound in order, but the prayer book is whole.
Unique Features: Miniature prayer book for the entire year, for weekdays, Shabbat, festivals, and the High Holy Days. The prayer book is not listed in the Bibliography of the Hebrew Book and is not found in the National Library. Other prayer books which are listed in the Bibliography of the Hebrew Book and found in the National Library were printed in Prague in the same year.
It is extremely rare to find a miniature prayer book in such good condition.
Condition: Very fine. Gilded page cut. Slight abrasions on the spine. In an original cardboard container covered in original marbled paper.
Song of praise, which the holy congregation of Ashkenazim sung ... here in the Hague, the capital city, upon the day that our master, the prince Wilhelm V, commander of the armies at sea and on land returned with his wife ....
May we merit in our lifetime to pray for them in Your Temple, and to relate all the good they have bestowed upon us in Zion and the cities of Judah. Amen.
Specifications: [4] pages, paper. 17x22 cm.
Unique Features: Rare. Historical document which reflects the Jewish patriotic fervor in the Republic of the Netherlands. Several signatures in the margins of the page of the prayer.
Background: Wilhelm V, Prince of Orange (1748-1806), was orphaned from his father in 1751 and became ruler in 1766. In 1767 he was married to Wilhelmina of Prussia in Berlin, Princess of Orange, daughter of the Prince of Prussia and the Duchess of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, and they had four children. Due to a revolution in 1795 Wilhelm and his family fled to Britain, where he died.
Naftali Hertz Weisel (1725-1805), one of the first members of the Enlightenment, a linguist, author and poet. Born in Hamburg and grew up in Copenhagen, he studied Talmud and Poskim in yeshivas, and later studied Hebrew grammar and took an interest in mathematics and science, history and foreign languages. He began to deal in trade and banking, and worked in a bank in Amsterdam. In 1769 he left Amsterdam and returned to Copenhagen.
Condition: Fine. Minimal stains, fold marks, cuts and tears at the edges of the paper without damage to text.
Machzor Moadei Hashem [the Ma'ariv prayer and the Pesach Haggadah] according to the custom of the Sephardim. Corfu, at the printing press of Yosef Nachmoli. 1877. Extremely rare.
Specifications: 52 leaves, 19 cm. Otzar HaHaggadot 1490. Ginzei Yisrael- Mehlman Collection 351.
Content: Contains the Ma'ariv prayer and the Pesach Haggadah. With piyutim at the end of the Haggadah according to the Ashkenazi custom.
Unique Features: Very few Hebrew books were printed on the island of Corfu by the printer Nachmoli, and some were printed in a limited number of copies. It seems that the Haggadah before us with the Ma'ariv prayer is part of a machzor for the entire year which was never printed. A similar Haggadah was printed in Corfu in the same year by the name Arvit V'Haggadah Shel Pesach. However, on the title page before us, "Machzor Moadei Hashem ... Chag HaMatzot" is printed. "Arvit V'Haggadah" is printed on the second leaf, and on page [25]: "Haggadah."
Background: For more information about the Hebrew printing press in Corfu, refer to: Haberman, Defusei Corfu (in: Perakim B'Toldot HaMadpisim Ha'Ivrim). The rare Haggadah before us is no. 2.
Condition: Moderate-fine. Slight tears in the margins.
Machzor according to the custom of Poland, Reisen, Lithuania, Pihem, Moravia and the other holy congregations, in large letters. Vienna, at the printing press of Joseph Hraschanzky, 1794. Two volumes.
Specifications: Part one, Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. 37, 37-307, 307-466 leaves. 18 cm.
Part two: Three pilgrim festivals. 474 leaves, 18 cm.
Unique Features: That the Polish custom was added to the Selichot for Yom Kippur is written on the first title page. Tiny illustrations of the twelve signs of the Zodiac are in the piyut for dew for Pesach and rain for Succot.
Machzorim with Yiddish were printed in the same year in Vienna. The machzorim before us are rare. The Bibliography of the Hebrew Book only lists the first part. The National Library only has the first part (and one copy is incomplete), and the description of the second part is according to a photocopy of the title page and last leaf of the copy of the Jewish Community Library in Zagreb. Among the first machzorim printed in the Austro-Hungarian empire.
Condition: Very fine. Two identical original leather bindings with slight abrasions.
Machzor L'Ymei HaSelichot and Hatarat Nedarim. The first Hebrew book printed in Bombay. Bombay, 1841.
Specifications: [1] 41 [1] leaves, approximately 20 cm. Lithographic print from a manuscript.
Unique Features: Extremely rare book. The entire book is written in vowelized print. Brought to print by Shalom Sharabi. He was a Jew who came from Yemen, lived in Cochin and later in Bombay, served as a poet, cantor, ritual slaughterer and mohel, and had a tremendous influence on the 'Bnei Israel' in India (refer to: A. Ya'ari, HaDefuss HaIvri B'Artzot HaMizrach, part two, page 52).
The first Hebrew book printed in Bombay, refer to: Moshe Rosenfeld, Hebrew Printing from its Beginning until 1948, Jerusalem, 1992, number 898. However, several years prior to the printing of this book, a missionary printed a book in Marathi which was aimed at Jews in Bombay, but this is the first Hebrew book printed there. Refer to Ya'ari, ibid.
Content: 'G-d in Heaven, give life and peace to our master and king,' is printed on page 20. In the manuscript, the words 'our master and king' are in parentheses and the words 'to our mistress the queen' are written. In this period, India was part of the British empire, which was ruled over by Queen Victoria. Ya'ari, Reshimat HaSefarim Shenidpesu B'Bombay, no. 90.
Condition: Fine. Aging stains. Original blemished leather binding.
Selichot for the entire year, according to the customs of the congregations of Poland, Pihem, Hungary and Mehrin ... paper and ink and pleasant letters and with the addition of the shacharit prayer. London, 1770.
Specifications: 113, [1] leaf. 13x20 cm. First edition.
Unique Features: Prayer books were printed in England in 1770: siddur, machzorim and the book of selichot before us, subsequent editions were based on these.
Condition: Fine. Aging stains. Gilded page cuts. New binding.
Selichot for the High Holy Days, and for Shovavim Tat, with a list of Selichot for 20 Sivan. The Selichot were printed in large, vowelized print. Poritsk, at the printing press of Rabbi Mordechai Mardush, 1805.
Specifications: [114] leaves, paper, 18 cm. 9x18 cm.
Background: The printer, Rabbi Mordechai Mardush, son of Rabbi Hillel, was rabbi of Poritsk. A fire broke out in 1804 which destroyed the printing press. The parts of the machines that were saved were transferred to the rabbi's house, where the book before us was printed. Only one other book is known to have been printed there.
Unique Features: Especially rare book. Not listed in the Bibliography of the Hebrew Book, not found in the National Library. Among the largest public libraries in the world, it is found in the JTS library. There is a known edition of Selichot printed in Poritsk in 1794 with Yiddish, but it is not similar to the Selichot before us.
Condition: Leaves 2, 11-12 are missing. Aging stains. Paint stains, wear and tear on the edges of the title page. A few leaves have small tears. Fine condition.
Romemot El, Tehillim with a commentary by Rabbi Moshe Alshich. Venice, in the printing press of Giovanni di Gara, 1605. First edition.
Specifications: 310 leaves, 19.5 cm. Haberman-Yudelov, HaMadpis Giovanni di Gara 238.
Background: The first edition of Rabbi Moshe Alshich's important commentary on Tehillim. Rabbi Moshe Alshich was one of the foremost sages of Safed during the city's golden age, also known as the Alshich HaKadosh. The author died several years before the book was printed, and his son Rabbi Chaim Alshich brought the book to print. The son writes in the introduction that an unedited manuscript of part of the commentary on Tehillim was stolen from his house, and printed without permission.
Unique Features: An ancient book of Tehillim with the first edition of the important commentary. Ownership signatures on the title page.
Condition: Fine. The title page and first leaves were restored in the margins. Worming holes.