Bidspirit auction | Only edition! Turei Zahav on

Only edition! Turei Zahav on Shir HaShirim By the Av Beit Din of Mainz, Rabbi Hirz Avraham Naftali Shayer, ”a gaon of Israel, wonder of the generation” (the Ḥatam Sofer) - Sefer Turei Zahav on Shir HaShirim By the Av Beit Din of Mainz, Rabbi Hirz Avraham Naftali Shayer. Mainz 1875 Published by his grandson Rabbi Shmuel Bondi Only edition. [2], 455, [17] pp. Rabbi Avraham Naftali Hirz Shayer (1754 – 22 Tishrei 1823) was a rabbi, kabbalist, and rosh yeshivah, rabbi of Mainz, and author of the work Turei Zahav on Shir HaShirim. He was born in Pfeddersheim to Rabbi Yaakov Moshe David Tewli, rosh yeshivah of Mainz, disciple of the “Shev Yaakov”, and a mentor of the Chatam Sofer. After his father’s passing he replaced him as rosh yeshivah in Mainz, a position he held for more than forty years. He raised many disciples, among them Rabbi Yaakov Ettlinger, author of the Arukh LaNer. He refused to accept the rabbinate, but was compelled to accept the rabbanut of Mainz in 1801. In his days, Napoleon Bonaparte ruled Mainz. With the establishment of the Paris Sanhedrin in 1806, he was appointed a member. But after it was decided to establish consistories in every district, and after the consistory led to changes which in Rabbi Hirz’s eyes were harmful, he resigned his rabbinate in 1810, and returned to the rabbinate only after Napoleon’s fall and the end of the French occupation (publisher’s introduction, leaf 14b). The Ḥatam Sofer, who had been a student of his father Rabbi Tewli Shayer and knew him from his years in his yeshivah, addressed him with honorifics such as “Gaon of Israel, ” “Wonder of the Generation, ” and “The Glory of the Holiness of His Majestic Name.” He was among the great warriors against the Reform movement. In 1814 he fell gravely ill in a plague that struck the city. He entered a state of coma, and remembered nothing of what had transpired, but his relatives told him that he spoke words of Torah, mainly on passages of Shir HaShirim. They repeated to him what he had said, and he understood that although they had heard, they had not grasped the depth of his words. He himself transmitted hints that he had uttered – and explained at length the profundity of the matters spoken in a state near death (ibid. 21a). He undertook to compose his work Turei Zahav on Shir HaShirim, which he studied each Sabbath. He testified that additional years of life were granted him to complete the composition of the book (from the introduction of his grandson, the publisher). He writes reproof against those who go bareheaded (37a), against changing names to foreign names and adopting gentile garments (75b), a story about Rabbi Shimon Muzik, rabbi of Hagenau, and his self-sacrifice during the decrees of Robespierre [in the period of terror against religion following the French Revolution]. He passed away in his city Mainz after the Festival of Sukkot 1823 (ibid. 18b). The eulogy of Rabbi Wolf Hamburg for him was printed in the book Alon Bakhot. His book Turei Zahav on Shir HaShirim was printed by his grandson Rabbi Shmuel Bondi in 1875. The book combines kabbalistic interpretation with homiletic teachings. At the end of the book was printed an essay on Megillat Esther titled Shekel HaKodesh. The publisher-grandson added his own explanations to Megillat Esther, as well as the essay Brit Kodesh on the commandment of circumcision, and a further booklet Torah Or, various selections and homilies. Owners: On the rear cover: “Moshe Engelman, 8 Twarda Street.” Rabbi Moshe Engelman of Warsaw [8 Twarda Street], a magnate among the ḥasidim of Sochatchov and Gostynin, is mentioned in the book Avir HaRo’im on the Avnei Nezer (sec. 210, p. 110): “And the ḥasid, the magnate Rabbi Moshe Engelman of Warsaw told me further what he had heard from the holy lips of the holy man of G-d, Rabbi Y.M., of Gostynin.” On page 271 of the book – a handwritten note by R. M. Engelman. Additional owner: stamp “ Yaakov Yosef Mozes of Warsaw.”