Bidspirit auction | Beit Hillel, First Edition, Dyhernfurth

Beit Hillel, First Edition, Dyhernfurth 1691- Signature of the Gaon Rabbi Yechiel Michel ABD Pasvalys. - Sefer Beit Hillel, Parts One and Two, on Shulchan Aruch Yoreh De’ah and Even HaEzer, by Rabbi Hillel Hertz. First Edition. Dyhernfurth, 1691. Printed by Rabbi Shabtai the Cantor (Meshorer) Bass, author of Siftei Chachamim on Rashi’s commentary to the Torah. On the title page appears an impressive early rabbinic signature: “Yechiel Michel, son of the late gaon Rabbi Issachar Ber, of blessed memory, of Paswahl.” The gaon Rabbi Yechiel Michel served as Av Beit Din of Pasvalys in the mid-18th century. His son-in-law was the gaon Rabbi Avraham Leib Mintz (son of the gaon Rabbi Shlomo Mintz, Av Beit Din of Kobryn and Slonim), who also served as Av Beit Din of Paswahl until his passing in 1869. An early Latin-script ownership inscription appears, belonging to Rabbi Yosef Hirschowitz, Av Beit Din of Paswahl. Also present are the stamps of the gaon Rabbi Chaim Yitzchak Karb (1872–1957), who served as rabbi in various cities in Lithuania and Ukraine, and in his later years was among the rabbis of the United States and head of the Beit Midrash le-Torah Yeshiva in Chicago. He received rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Eliezer Gordon, rabbi of Telz and head of the Telz Yeshiva. He maintained a close friendship with Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchak Rabinowitz. He was appointed rabbi of the city of Palanga, where he served for six years until the outbreak of World War I. During the war he served as Av Beit Din of Pavlohrad in Ukraine. After the war he was appointed rabbi of Old Žagarė in the Kovno district, serving there for four years, from which tenure he became known as “the Rabbi of Žagarė.” In 1927 he immigrated to the United States, and upon arrival was appointed rabbi of the Great Beit Midrash in Harlem. There he published the first volume of his work Netivot Chaim, dealing with various topics in the sugyot of the Babylonian Talmud and the teachings of Maimonides. The work was well received among Torah scholars in both the United States and Lithuania. In 1928 he was appointed head of the Beit Midrash le-Torah Yeshiva in Chicago. 134, [1], 49 Leaves. 31 cm.