Kuntress Besamim Rosh – Eight sermons on halachah and aggadah by Rabbi Yitzchak, av beit din of Stanislav, with the will of Rabbi Moshe David Ashkenazi of Tulcha [Frankfurt am Main, 1915]. Compilation that was saved during the war and shows its hardships. Extremely rare.
The sermons were printed first in the book Shemen Rosh (Munkacs, 1903), by the author’s father, Rabbi Asher Anshel Ashkenazi. The author’s son, who fled to Frankfurt at the beginning of WWI, saved just the leaves of Besamim Rosh and bound them with a new jacket cover inscribed “This is one compilation saved from the the burning sword overrunning our city, and this printed one attests to all the rest!” The author’s grandfather’s will is printed on the last page – that of Rabbi Moshe David Ashkenazi of Tulcha-Safed.
It appears that only the title page was printed in Frankfurt, with the author’s name, Har”i Ashkenazi [Rabbi Yitzchak Ashkenazi], the author’s son, who printed the kuntress , hence the inscription “presently a time of emergency and destruction.”
[1], 16 leaf. 33 m. Hard-to-find kuntress .
Moderate condition. Evidence in the compilation of the hardships endured along the way – marks of having been folded into four, and tears in the folds. Jacket cover.