Bidspirit auction | Sifrei — Minkovitz 1804  

Sifrei — Minkovitz 1804   From the Otzar HaSeforim of the Bas Ayin ZY”A Sifrei, Midrash Halachah on Sefer Bamidbar, attributed to R’ Shimon bar Yochai and representing the teachings of R’ Yishmael and R’ Akiva. Printed in Minkovitz, 1804. On the sha’ar appears a handwritten inscription (partially blotted by ink strokes): “Shayach l’harav ha’tz… m’Navaritch” This refers to the heilige R’ Avraham Dov of Ovrutch, Baal Bas Ayin ZY”A. Also present is the signature of his successor in the hanhagas ha’chassidim in Tzfas, R’ Shmuel Heller, Av Beis Din of Tzfas. The Kedushah of the Bas Ayin A well-known ma’aseh is recorded (Ma’amar Mordechai of R’ Muttel of Slonim, vol. II, p. 166): After the petirah of the Bas Ayin, R’ Aharon of Chernobyl requested that a garment worn by the Bas Ayin be sent to him. When it arrived, it required tailoring to fit his measurements. The tzaddik summoned a tailor and instructed that the work be done only in his home — and that the leftover scraps be buried, not discarded. Such was the reverence for anything that had touched the body of the Bas Ayin. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Ovrutch and Navaritch — One and the Same Without doubt, the names Ovrutch and Navaritch refer to the same city. In Ofer Yaakov (Breslov, 1839), a teshuvah from the Bas Ayin is printed, where the name appears in both forms within the same piece: first as Navaritch and later as Ovrutch. Similarly, his father-in-law, the previous Rav of Ovrutch, the heilige R’ Nosson Neta, talmid of the Baal Shem Tov, is referred to in early sources as “R’ Neta of Navaritch” (see Harei B’samim, Parshas Savo, daf 110; cited in Ginzei Tzaddikim, p. 45). See also Shu”t Mayim Chaim siman 44; Chayei Moharan; Yemei Moharnat I:17 (first edition p. 9); Shaarei Yerushalayim, p. 31. The Bas Ayin and His Successor in Tzfas The heilige R’ Avraham Dov Ber ben R’ Dovid of Ovrutch (niftar 1841) was a tzaddik and ish Elokim kadosh, talmid muvhak of the Kedushas Levi and the Maggid of Chernobyl ZY”A. He served as Rav in the prominent cities of Zhitomir and Ovrutch, and later ascended to Eretz HaKodesh where he settled in Tzfas and led the chassidishe yishuv in the Galil. He is renowned by the name of his sefer, Bas Ayin. The gaon ha’kadosh R’ Shmuel Heller (1803–1884), among the leading chassidishe figures in Eretz Yisroel, in his youth merited to be in the presence of the Chozeh of Lublin, who is said to have foretold his future in twenty-four words. Orphaned at a young age, he came to Eretz Yisroel and attached himself to the Bas Ayin. After the petirah of the Bas Ayin in 1840, he assumed his place in guiding the yishuv in Tzfas.