Exegeses, simple explanations, ideas, sermons and novellae on the Torah by Rabbi Meir Simchah HaCohen of Dvinsk. Riga, 1927. First edition.
Specifications: 434 pages, 26 cm.
Background: The author, Rabbi Meir Simchah HaCohen [1843-1926], renowned rabbi of Dvinsk – who served alongside his friend Rabbi Yosef Rosen, the Rogatchover gaon, rabbi of the city’s chassidic community, was one of the greatest rabbis of his time. He printed his work Ohr Sameach [also in the catalog before us] in his lifetime, and prior to his passing, presented the handwritten manuscript of this work to Rabbi Menachem Mendel Zak, rabbi of Riga, so that he would print the book. The rabbi of Riga did indeed printed the book, a few months after the author’s passing.
Special Features: In parashat Bechukotai [leaf 123], the author wrote terrible things about German Jewry, as if he were watching the future from a distance: “The Jew will forget his origins and consider himself a fresh citizen, leave his religious studies, to learn languages not his own … he will think that Berlin is Jerusalem … then a tempestuous storm wind will come and uproot him by his trunk, and propel him to a gentile from afar whose tongue he did not learn.”
Condition: Very fine. Some copies were printed on acidic paper.