Rabbi Noah Haltrecht was born in Lissa (present-day Leszno, Poland), then a community of about 4,000-5,000 Jews, and educated there and in Posen (present-day Poznań, Poland). After marrying in his hometown and receiving rabbinical ordination from Rabbis Zevi Hirsch Yanov of Posen and Ezekiel Landau of Prague, he served as the spiritual leader of communities in Bojanowo, Błaszki (by early 1797), and Lubraniec (from mid-1818). During his lifetime, his son Isaac Itsik published seventeen (not nineteen; two numbers are skipped) of his nearly eighty derushim (homilies) under the title Sefer toledot noah (Warsaw, 1830), which received approbations from the author’s illustrious friends Rabbis Akiva Eger of Posen and Hayyim Auerbach of Łęczyca, among others. Following his death, Isaac Itsik compiled a commentary on the Haggadah based on his father’s (and his own) writings entitled Lekitat yitshak (Warsaw, 1848). Haltrecht also left behind novellae on the Babylonian Talmud, another set of derushim, and a poetic drama about the story of Cain and Abel entitled Sefer minhat hevel, all unpublished.
Haltrecht was known as an eloquent, skilled Hebraist who excelled in the art of rabbinic letter-writing, using melitsah (biblical and rabbinic phraseology) to great effect. His epistolary services were called upon by the Jewish community of Lissa in the aftermath of a great fire that broke out in the city in June 1790, as well as by individuals in need of charity or other support. According to historian of Jewish Lissa Louis Lewin, his letters “were much liked and many copies were made of them.” The present lot comprises a collection of fifteen such missives, copied by a scribe named Benjamin Hayyim, who signed his name on the final page. (The volume currently begins with f. 6, and it is unclear what material originally preceded this leaf.) These include personal letters of condolence, congratulation, rebuke, friendship, thanks, and recommendation on behalf of the poor, several of which throw light on the conditions prevailing in Polish Jewish communities at the time.
The manuscript eventually passed into the possession of Joseph Gombinski (perhaps the man of that name who lived 1847-1919 and died in Schwerin) before coming to the Rev. Gerald Friedlander (1871-1923), minister of the Western Synagogue, London, and author of several works, including a scholarly translation of Pirkei de-rabbi eli‘ezer (London, 1916) and an adaptation of Jewish legends for children (New York, 1920). Following Friedlander’s sudden death from heart failure in August 1923, David Solomon Sassoon purchased three Hebrew manuscripts from his widow Anna (née Liepmann) on December 10, 1923. One of these was the present lot, and a second was Haltrecht’s Sefer minhat hevel, copied by the same scribe, Benjamin Hayyim (Sassoon 603).
ProvenanceJoseph Gombinski (upper board)Wydział Nrarbowy (rear flyleaf)
Physical Description34 pages (6 7/8 x 3 5/8 in.; 175 x 92 mm) on paper (p. 2 blank); early (original?) foliation in pen in Arabic numerals in upper-outer corners of rectos (ff. 6-23); modern pagination in pencil in Arabic numerals in lower margins at center (cited); written in Ashkenazic semi-cursive script in brown ink; horizontal catchwords sporadically in lower margins; episodic Tiberian vocalization of text; numeration of missives in Latin script and Arabic numerals (e.g., “No 1.”); signatures on pp. 1, 34; corrections and strikethroughs in primary hands; modern pencil marks on pp. 15-16. Based on the early foliation, it appears five folios are lacking at front; light scattered staining and thumbing; some smudging of ink; small wormhole in lower edge of pp. 1-10. Original half-leather over board, stained, wormed, and extensively worn; text block almost completely separate from binding; spine splitting; paper ticket with title affixed to top of spine; paper ticket with shelf mark affixed to base of spine, now worn away; original paper pastedowns.
LiteratureDaniel Lewin, “Rabbi Noah Haltrecht,” unpublished typescript, part of New York, Yeshiva University Library, Ms. 1337, available at: https://www.nli.org.il/en/manuscripts/NNL_ALEPH997008502183005171/NLI#$FL161411981.
Louis Lewin, Geschichte der Juden in Lissa (Pinne: N. Gundermann, 1904), 69-72, 312-316, 361-368 (nos. 11-15a), 373-376 (nos. 19-20), 377.
Jeffrey Maynard, “Jewish Fairy Stories, by Gerald Friedlander, Minister of the Western Synagogue,(c 1920), London,” Jewish Miscellanies (July 8, 2021), available at: https://jewishmiscellanies.com/2021/07/08/jewish-fairy-stories-by-gerald-friedlander-minister-of-the-western-synagoguec-1920-london/.
David Solomon Sassoon, Ohel Dawid: Descriptive Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the Sassoon Library, London, vol. 1 ([Oxford]: Oxford University Press; London: Humphrey Milford, 1932), 403 (no. 602).
Rabbi Noah Haltrecht was born in Lissa (present-day Leszno, Poland), then a community of about 4,000-5,000 Jews, and educated there and in Posen (present-day Poznań, Poland). After marrying in his hometown and receiving rabbinical ordination from Rabbis Zevi Hirsch Yanov of Posen and Ezekiel Landau of Prague, he served as the spiritual leader of communities in Bojanowo, Błaszki (by early 1797), and Lubraniec (from mid-1818). During his lifetime, his son Isaac Itsik published seventeen (not nineteen; two numbers are skipped) of his nearly eighty derushim (homilies) under the title Sefer toledot noah (Warsaw, 1830), which received approbations from the author’s illustrious friends Rabbis Akiva Eger of Posen and Hayyim Auerbach of Łęczyca, among others. Following his death, Isaac Itsik compiled a commentary on the Haggadah based on his father’s (and his own) writings entitled Lekitat yitshak (Warsaw, 1848). Haltrecht also left behind novellae on the Babylonian Talmud, another set of derushim, and a poetic drama about the story of Cain and Abel entitled Sefer minhat hevel, all unpublished.
Haltrecht was known as an eloquent, skilled Hebraist who excelled in the art of rabbinic letter-writing, using melitsah (biblical and rabbinic phraseology) to great effect. His epistolary services were called upon by the Jewish community of Lissa in the aftermath of a great fire that broke out in the city in June 1790, as well as by individuals in need of charity or other support. According to historian of Jewish Lissa Louis Lewin, his letters “were much liked and many copies were made of them.” The present lot comprises a collection of fifteen such missives, copied by a scribe named Benjamin Hayyim, who signed his name on the final page. (The volume currently begins with f. 6, and it is unclear what material originally preceded this leaf.) These include personal letters of condolence, congratulation, rebuke, friendship, thanks, and recommendation on behalf of the poor, several of which throw light on the conditions prevailing in Polish Jewish communities at the time.
The manuscript eventually passed into the possession of Joseph Gombinski (perhaps the man of that name who lived 1847-1919 and died in Schwerin) before coming to the Rev. Gerald Friedlander (1871-1923), minister of the Western Synagogue, London, and author of several works, including a scholarly translation of Pirkei de-rabbi eli‘ezer (London, 1916) and an adaptation of Jewish legends for children (New York, 1920). Following Friedlander’s sudden death from heart failure in August 1923, David Solomon Sassoon purchased three Hebrew manuscripts from his widow Anna (née Liepmann) on December 10, 1923. One of these was the present lot, and a second was Haltrecht’s Sefer minhat hevel, copied by the same scribe, Benjamin Hayyim (Sassoon 603).
ProvenanceJoseph Gombinski (upper board)Wydział Nrarbowy (rear flyleaf)
Physical Description34 pages (6 7/8 x 3 5/8 in.; 175 x 92 mm) on paper (p. 2 blank); early (original?) foliation in pen in Arabic numerals in upper-outer corners of rectos (ff. 6-23); modern pagination in pencil in Arabic numerals in lower margins at center (cited); written in Ashkenazic semi-cursive script in brown ink; horizontal catchwords sporadically in lower margins; episodic Tiberian vocalization of text; numeration of missives in Latin script and Arabic numerals (e.g., “No 1.”); signatures on pp. 1, 34; corrections and strikethroughs in primary hands; modern pencil marks on pp. 15-16. Based on the early foliation, it appears five folios are lacking at front; light scattered staining and thumbing; some smudging of ink; small wormhole in lower edge of pp. 1-10. Original half-leather over board, stained, wormed, and extensively worn; text block almost completely separate from binding; spine splitting; paper ticket with title affixed to top of spine; paper ticket with shelf mark affixed to base of spine, now worn away; original paper pastedowns.
LiteratureDaniel Lewin, “Rabbi Noah Haltrecht,” unpublished typescript, part of New York, Yeshiva University Library, Ms. 1337, available at: https://www.nli.org.il/en/manuscripts/NNL_ALEPH997008502183005171/NLI#$FL161411981.
Louis Lewin, Geschichte der Juden in Lissa (Pinne: N. Gundermann, 1904), 69-72, 312-316, 361-368 (nos. 11-15a), 373-376 (nos. 19-20), 377.
Jeffrey Maynard, “Jewish Fairy Stories, by Gerald Friedlander, Minister of the Western Synagogue,(c 1920), London,” Jewish Miscellanies (July 8, 2021), available at: https://jewishmiscellanies.com/2021/07/08/jewish-fairy-stories-by-gerald-friedlander-minister-of-the-western-synagoguec-1920-london/.
David Solomon Sassoon, Ohel Dawid: Descriptive Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the Sassoon Library, London, vol. 1 ([Oxford]: Oxford University Press; London: Humphrey Milford, 1932), 403 (no. 602).
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