Bidspirit auction | MENDELOVITZ, SHNEUR ZALMAN. Avodath Hashem

MENDELOVITZ, SHNEUR ZALMAN. Avodath Hashem [commentary to Bereishith]. First Edition. Published on the occasion of the Author’s 80th birthday. Final leaf consists of a poem composed by the Author at the tomb of Ezekiel the Prophet in Baghdad. On verso of title and f. 4r., vignette of the Western Wall. On f. 4v. vignette of Chabad synagogue in Old City of Jerusalem with caption reading in Hebrew and English: 'This Synagogue was built by Messrs. Dawid Sassoon & Sons in Jerusalem the Holy Land.' On title, stamp of 'Raphael David Kaski, Sh[ochet] u-b[odek] (ritual slaughterer), Beirut.' ff. (7), 2-41, (1). Title tape-repaired. Browned, tear on final two leaves repaired, minor loss of text. Modern boards. Sm. 4to. Halevi, Jerusalem 408. Jerusalem, Elchanan Tannenbaum, 1884. The work recounts the founding of the Chabad Synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem.  It includes an account of the author’s travels on behalf of the Chabad Community of both Jerusalem and Hebron, noting visits among the aristocratic Jewish denizens of Europe as well as the Far East, including: David Sassoon, his sons Abdallah (Albert) and Elias David, Bombay (in whose home Mendelovitz resided for two years); Solomon and his wife Farha (Flora) Sassoon, Bombay; Sir Moses Montefiore and Joseph Sassoon, London; Baron Shimon Wolf (Wilhelm Karl) de Rothschild, Frankfurt a/Main; Frederick (Frej Chaim) Sassoon, Hong Kong; Azori (Edward) Sassoon, Shanghai, etc. According to his account here, Mendelowitz received an audience with Queen Victoria of Great Britain.  Included are haskamoth by the two Sephardic Rabbis of Jerusalem, R. Raphael Meir Panigel and R. Ya’akov Shaul Elyashar; as well as R. Yehoshua Leib Diskin (Brisk-Jerusalem), R. Eliyahu Mani (Hebron), R. Shimon Menashe Chaikin (Chabad-Hebron), R. Rahamim Yoseph Franco (Sephardim-Hebron) and R. Raphael Aaron ben Shimon (Jerusalem-later Cairo).