Tikun Sofrim for the Scroll of Esther by Rabbi Shlomo Zalman ben Rabbi Gottlieb Stern – Completion of the ...

Tikun Sofrim for the Scroll of Esther by Rabbi Shlomo Zalman ben Rabbi Gottlieb Stern – Completion of the Enterprise of Rabbi Shlomo Dubna – Composition in the Author's Handwriting, has Never been Printed – Historical Revelation
Rabbi Shlomo Dubna was one of the greatest Hebrew linguists and amongst the foremost students of the Bible. He was a student of Rabbi Shlomo from Chelma, author of the 'Mirkevet HaMishneh'. He was of a pure heart in his service of G-d, and at the same time was closely connected to the founders of the Enlightenment in its early stages. He was the one who pushed for the printing of the translation and commentary of Moses Mendelssohn from Dessau, and even wrote the commentary to the book of Genesis. Later on he wanted to publish his own commentary of the whole Torah and the Tikun Sofrim. The Tikun Sofrim deals with all of the extra and missing letters and all the kri and ktiv (etc.) in the chumashim. He published the Tikun on Genesis and Exodus. He received approbations from the greatest Rabbis of the generation, and foremostly from the holy one of G-d, who is similar to an angel, Rabbi Zalmale of Volozhin, from his brother Rabbenu Chayim of Volozhin and from the Noda B'Yehuda.
These are the words of Rabbi Zalmale:
The words of Rabbi Shalom of Dubna in his work on the Torah of two parts are very beloved to me. The first, his pleasant commentary which he collected from all the early commentators who explain the simple level of the Torah aside his personal explanations which are acceptable to the intelligent.
The second, the Tikun Sofrim, based on the missing (letters) and the full (words), dots vowels and notes, enlarged letters, miniature letters, overturned and dotted letters. He mentions all the main viewpoints on each of these matters and concluded with view most agreed upon as Halacha.
When I received this book and studied it I found mention of issues that I used to deliberate and he quenched my thirst with his clarification of the above subjects that I mentioned seeing in his book.
Therefore I also agreed to the printing of these books and am prepared to purchase a copy at the beginning of the sale.
I request of every man who the fear of g-d touched his heart to sign himself to the publishing of this book so that Rabbi Shlomo Dubno can finish his deed, and maybe this will strengthen him to write these works on prophets and Ketuvim as well.
And as proof I sign myself, Tuesday27th nissan 5543 (29th may 1783)
says Sh.Z the son of the late Rabbi Yitzchak.
Rabbi Shlomo did not merit to complete his tikun. His colleague wrote the tikun to the three remaining books of the Torah.
This is what was known to us up until now. Before us we have an historical discovery: the completion of the work of Rabbi Shlomo of Dubno on the book of Esther by Rabbi Shlomo Zalman son of Rabbi Gottlieb Stern. The reason is obvious: the Book of Esther is written on parchment according to all of the laws which apply to the writing of a Torah scroll, and therefore there is extra importance to knowing the kri and ktiv, the paragraphs, etc.
Before us is the Tikkun Sofrim on the Book of Esther from Rabbi Shlomo Zalman ben Rabbi Gottleib Stern.
Rabbi Zalman Stern was an enormous personality who was very similar to Rabbi Shlomo Dubno, whose work he completed. He was also pure in his service of G-d, and at the same time connected to the Enlightenment. He did lots of work in grammar and Bible. In the National Library in Jerusalem is a manuscript which he wrote on this topic. Like Rabbi Shlomo Dubno, he was also a collector of books and manuscripts. In the National Library there are many manuscripts which he owned.
Rabbi Zalman Stern merited to write many works on different subjects and to participate in additional projects such as publishing prayer books for the Festivals with a translation, comments to the Shem HaGdolim of the Chida and many others. His great figure and many projects are still waiting for a sage and researcher who will learn about them and publish the parts of his works which are still in manuscript form.
At the beginning of the work is an important introduction, and below are a few sentences from it:
"Only from the day on which G-d opened my eyes...to learn from both old and new books which recently came, which our forefathers did not imagine, I found amongst the books of the sages of Berlin a lovely book...tikkun sofrim from which one can check and fix Torah scrolls which are written on parchment according to laws of Torah scrolls, which was written and collected by the Rabbi, the all inclusive sage, the famous grammarian, my master and teacher Shlomo ben Yoel from Dubno the author of the commentary of the book of Genesis...but a different spirit came over him and he did not finish it, apart from two books, the book of Genesis and the book of Exodus and the grammarian my master and teacher Azriel from Yorit finished the three later books, probably from the introduction to the Torah by the sage our Rabbi Moses ben Menachem of Dessau...and I started to write a tikun on the Book of Esther in the style of the aforementioned Tikun Sofrim...”
In the introduction there are several interesting points. Amongst them: his opinion on the the author of the Tikkun Sofrim on the last three books of the Torah, his choice of words to describe Rabbi Shlomo of Dubno's stopping to write the Tikun, and his view on Moses Mendelssohn.
The work “was completed on the night before the fast of Esther in the year 1740 in Galanda (=Glanta)”.
Size:
Condition: Very good. A small tear in the front cover – the title page, with no damage to the text.