Bidspirit auction | Collection of Antique Seforim, 1801–1819.

Collection of Antique Seforim, 1801–1819. - 1. Sefer Ha-Brit, Part One, on matters of faith, halakhah, ethics, Kabbalah, philosophy, and natural science, by Rabbi Pinchas Eliyahu Horowitz. Brünn (Brno), 1801. On the front endpaper is a personal dedication by R. Mordechai Peretz Lewin, ritual slaughterer and cantor in the city of Bernburg, who received the sefer from the estate of Rabbi Dr. [Salomon] Herxheimer, author of Yesodei Ha-Dat. He recounts their friendship up until the expulsion of the Jews from Russia in the 19th century. This edition was issued by the printer and his associates without the author’s permission, and most copies were destroyed or suppressed. See the author’s remarks in the second edition, published in Zolkiew in 1807, where he states that a non-Jew in the city of Brünn, together with two advisors, printed the sefer about six years earlier without his consent, and printed only the first part—clearly referring to the present edition. Both the true first edition and this one were published without the author’s name, leading many to mistakenly attribute the work to the Gaon of Vilna. [15], 16–209 leaves. 16.8 cm. 2. Sefer Yayin Ha-Roke’ach, on the Mishnah, together with Sefer Kisei De-Virkheta on the Order of Zera’im, by Rabbi Moshe son of Meister, originally of the holy community of Breslau and at that time residing in the community of Lissa. Only Edition. Dyhernfurth, 1811. Printed by Yosef Mei. With an approbation by the gaon Rabbi Yaakov son of Rabbi Yaakov Moshe [Lorberbaum] of Lissa. [2], 28 leaves. 22 cm. Extremely rare. Has never appeared at public auction. 3. Kabbalah. Extremely rare. Sefer Keter Shem Tov, a commentary on the secrets of the Explicit Divine Name, by Rabbi Avraham son of Alexander of Cologne, a disciple of Rabbi Eleazar of Worms (Rokeach). First printing from manuscript. First Edition. Amsterdam [1816?]. Ben-Yaakov mistakenly records the date as 1817; other bibliographers record 1810. Exceedingly rare. See on the sefer  and its author: Gershom Scholem, Eshkol, Encyclopaedia Israelica, vol. I, Berlin (1929), p. 357; Manuscripts of Kabbalah, Jerusalem 1930, p. 57. 5, 7 leaves. 20.3 cm. 4. Sefer Zevach Shmuel, on the laws of ritual slaughter and inspection, by the gaon Rabbi Yosef Weil, with additional glosses collected by the gaon Rabbi Shmuel son of Moshe of the community of Lissa. Vilna and Grodno, 1819. [2], 37, [1] leaves. 21 cm.