A flyer dealing with ordinances and changes in customs of the synagogue in Holland, by Rabbi Naphtali Hirsch Herzfeld, grandson of the author of “Pnei Yehoshua”. The Hague 1842. [3] pages. Hebrew and Dutch in split columns. Without a title page. “To our brothers, the children of Israel living in the Netherlands” concerns justification of the practices he instituted in the synagogue and addressed to those who accused him of being a reformer. Includes a list of 17 rules he instituted.
Rabbi Naftali Zvi Hirsch Hertzfeld was born in 1782. His father, Rabbi Yehoshua Aharon Eliyahu, was the Head of the Rawitsch Bet Din (son-in-law of the author of “Merkevet Hamishna”), who was the son of Rabbi Shlomo Dobrusch, the Head of Głogów Bet Din, the son of Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Charif, the Head of Halberstadt Bet Din (and son in law of the author of “Pnei Yehoshua”). He married his relative, a daughter of Rabbi Yaacov Moshe Levinstam (Head of the Amsterdam Bet Din), son of the author of “Binyan Ariel“ (1806), the rabbi of Schwall (Zwelle), whose authority
spread across the whole province of Gelderland, where he died in 1846. His new interpretations and discourses have been preserved in a number of libraries.
In his letters he protests bitterly against those who consider him a reformer, while reminding them of his ancestry, as he writes:
“הניפו להט החרב המתהפכת על ענף עץ אבות פרי קדש הלולים חטר מגזע יהושע… ואין צבי ר”ץ בדרך תפארת לצבי תפארה…”.
Cardboard binding. Reinforcements in margins. Very rare.