Sefer Torah Ohr – Chassidic essays on chumashim Bereishit and Shemot, Chanukah and Purim, with the kuntress “Hosafot L’Sefer Torah Ohr” by the Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi – Ba’al Ha Tanya . Zhitomir, 1862. Printed by Rabbi Chanina Lipa and Rabbi Yehoshua Heschel Shapira, grandsons of the rabbi of Slavuta. First edition of the “Hosafot” compilation.
There are many important glosses written along the book’s leaves, in a beautiful tiny and dense script. Completions of hundreds of words in the glosses according to the Admo”r the Tzemach Tzeddek’s manuscript that were omitted when it was printed – some omissions were made by the censor. The writer also indicates the precise date dozens of the talks were given, and often even the cities in which they were delivered. In some of the glosses, the writer notes that it is according to a manuscript, and in others, he notes that it is his own deciphering “כנל”ה” [כנראה פענוחו: כן נראה להגיה].
This manuscript is very similar to the manuscript of the gaon Rabbi Eliyahu Rivlin of Drebin, author of Ohalei Yosef , who lived in Jerusalem, one of the Tzemach Tzeddek’s primary disciples (refer to Beit Rebbe Part III, leaf 15), who would regularly comment on the sides of the pages of books from his teachers – the Chaba”d Admo”rim, that were in his possession, with reference to the original manuscripts from which he copied (Rabbi Yehoshua Mondshine, HaMassa HaAcharon pp 140-142, in note 4).
Signature on the title page: Sh. Z. Fradkin” (Could this be the gaon Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Fradkin, av beit din of Lublin, author of Torah Chessed ?)
102; 24 leaf. Two title pages. Some of the letters on the first title page are in red ink. Additional title page for the kuntress of the supplements. 27 cm. Overall fine condition. Stains. Wear in the first leaves. Tears in the leaf of the first title page, restored with glued-on paper. New binding.