Bidspirit auction | A unique and singular letter

A unique and singular letter from the renowned Rabbi Shabtai Bass, author of Siftei Chachamim! - This letter, written by Rabbi Shabtai Shtrom-Bass, is addressed to his mechutan, R. Shimon of the holy community of Halberstadt. Rabbi Shabtai signs as: ”Mechutan, Shabtai, called Sheftel, son of the Rav…” Śrem, Ca. 1670. On the reverse side of the letter, he wrote the address: To the holy community of Halberstadt, may they swiftly receive… to my dear mechutan, the noble Torah scholar, like Eldad HaDani, the esteemed Rabbi Shimon, may his light shine like a brilliant illumination, and anyone else under the Chrem of Rabeinu Gerson… From the holy community of Shtrem.” No other letter from the great author of Siftei Chachamim is known to exist today! This letter has been compared to the only known handwriting sample of Rabbi Shabtai Bass—his  autograph additions on his sefer Siftei Yeshenim, which is preserved in the British Library (a scanned copy is available at the Israel National Library, catalog number F17302). The handwriting is fully identical. The famous Rabbi Shabtai Bass, was born in 1641 in Śrem, Poland, to Rabbi Yosef. His original family name was Śrem . (Some sources claim that he was born in Prague, but  Shem HaGedolim HaChadash states that he was born in Śrem and was called Rabbi Shabtai Śrem (which was pronounced Shtrim in Yiddish). Similarly, the sefer Tzemach David also records his birthplace as Śrem.) He was the founder of Jewish bibliography and author of the Siftei Chachamim supercommentary on Rashi's commentary on the Pentateuch. After the death of his parents, who were victims of the persecutions at Kalisz in 1655, from the Russo-Swedish War (1656–1658) Bass went to Prague. His teacher there in the Talmud was Meïr Wärters (d. 1693); and Loeb Shir ha-Shirim instructed him in singing. He was appointed bass singer in the celebrated Altneuschule of Prague, being called, from his position, ”Bass, ” or ”Bassista, ” or ”Meshorer.” His leisure time he devoted to literary pursuits, more especially to improving the instruction of the young. Between 1674 and 1679 Bass traveled through Poland, Germany, and the Dutch Republic, stopping in such cities as Głogów, Kalisz, Krotoszyn, Leszno, Poznań, Worms, and Amsterdam, the centers of Jewish scholarship. He finally settled at Amsterdam in 1679, where he entered into friendly and scholarly relations with the eminent men of the German and the Portuguese-Spanish communities. That city was the center of Jewish printing and publishing, and Bass, becoming thoroughly familiar with the business, resolved to devote himself entirely to issuing Jewish books. With a keen eye for the practical, he perceived that the eastern part of Germany was a suitable place for a Jewish printing establishment. The literary productivity of the Lithuanian-Polish Jews was at this time obliged to seek an outlet in Amsterdam or Prague almost exclusively; Bass accordingly fixed upon Breslau as a suitable place for his purposes, on account of its vicinity to the Polish frontier, and of the large commerce carried on between Breslau and Poland. Hence, after a residence of five years, he left Amsterdam; going first, it seems, to Vienna, in order to obtain a license from the imperial government. The negotiations between Bass and the magistrates of Breslau occupied nearly four years, and not until 1687 or 1688 did he receive permission to set up a Hebrew printing-press. Thereupon he settled at Dyhernfurth, a small town near Breslau founded shortly before 1663, whose owner, Herr von Glaubitz, glad to have a large establishment on his estate, was very well disposed toward Bass. In order the more easily to obtain Jewish workmen, Bass united into a congregation the small band of printers, typesetters, and workmen who had followed him to Dyhernfurth, for whose needs he cared, acquiring as early as 1689 a place for a cemetery. But the ill-will against Jews, apparent since 1697 in Silesia, and especially at Breslau, greatly injured Bass's establishment; he was himself forbidden to stay in Breslau (July 20, 1706). Another stroke of misfortune was the partial destruction of his establishment by fire in 1708. To this were added domestic difficulties. When an old man he had married a second time, to the great dissatisfaction of his family and neighbors, his wife being a young girl. He finally transferred his business to his only son, Joseph, in 1711. His trials culminated in his sudden arrest, April 13, 1712, on the charge of having spread abroad incendiary speeches against all divine and civic government. The Jesuits, who looked with an evil eye upon Bass's undertaking, had endeavored, in a letter to the magistrate of Breslau, as early as July 15, 1694, to have the sale of Hebrew books interdicted, on the ground that such works contained ”blasphemous and irreligious words”; and they had succeeded. As the magistrate saw, however, that the confiscated books contained no objectionable matter,