Bidspirit auction | “וּדְבָרָיו שָׁמַעְתָּ מִתּוֹךְ הָאֵשׁ”... Akedat

“וּדְבָרָיו שָׁמַעְתָּ מִתּוֹךְ הָאֵשׁ”... Akedat Yitzchak — Five Volumes — the Copy of the Saintly Rabbi Nachum’ka of Horodna, the Rebbe of the Chafetz Chaim! — Rare. - Akedat Yitzchak on the Torah – Pressburg 1849 The work Akedat Yitzchak on the Five Books of the Torah and the Five Megillot, authored by the divine philosopher Rabbeinu Yitzchak Arama, together with annotations and source references titled “Mekor Chayim” by R. Chaim Yosef Pollack, Av Beit Din of Trebitsch. Pressburg 1849. A complete set in five volumes, in excellent condition. Akedat Yitzchak and Its Author, the “Baal Ha-Akeidah”: Rabbeinu Yitzchak Arama was among the great sages of Spain during the generation of the expulsion. He served as rabbi and head of yeshivah in Zamora in northern Spain, and in Calatayud, “Kela’at Iyov” in Aragon. When the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, he departed with his son R. Meir to Italy. They arrived in Naples, but a plague broke out among the refugees, and under pressure from the townspeople, the exiles were forced into quarantine outside the city. During this period, evidently as a result of the plague, R. Yitzchak passed away.  The life and scholarly legacy of the Baal Ha-Akeidah were masterfully researched and documented by Rabbi Yehudah Zeivald in “Baal Ha-Akeidah: Rabbi Yitzchak Arama, Author of ‘Akedat Yitzchak, ’ His Life, Works, and Thought, ” Moreshet Avir Yaakov, Nahariya, 2023. The work Akedat Yitzchak was recognized as a fundamental sefer, and in the original Toldot Aharon authored by Rabbi Aharon of Pesaro—printed alongside the Chumash, with references to the words of Chazal in the Talmud and the Zohar that expound upon the verses of the Torah—sources were likewise cited from the Akedah. The Holy Gaon, R. Nachum’ka: A figure of awe-inspiring radiance, one of the hidden tzaddikim whose fiery inner sparks could not be fully concealed, revealing at least something of the greatness within—such was Rabbi Nachum’ka of Horodna. Rabbi Menachem Nachum Kaplan was not born upon a mountaintop. Far from it. He grew up in a poor home in an obscure village, orphaned in childhood, left without teacher or guide. His brilliant gifts drew him to the beit midrash, and at times someone would take him under his wing to teach him Torah and prayer. Yet his mischievous nature repeatedly pulled him outward. The story of his life and his difficult trials was described at length in the work Toldot Menachem, authored by Rabbi Yisrael David Miller and published in Piotrków in 1913, bearing the approbations of the great Lithuanian sages, the Gaon Rabbi Alexander Moshe Lapidot and the Gaon Rabbi Meir Atlas. In time, the young orphan overcame all obstacles. He entered the holy halls of the Volozhin Yeshivah and immersed himself entirely in Torah study and the pursuit of exalted spiritual attainments. In a short time he became known in Volozhin as a wondrously diligent scholar and a towering genius. Yet his striving for perfection caused him to recoil from public recognition. He left the yeshivah and settled in Kovno, where he toiled in learning unceasingly for many months, interrupting only to perform acts of kindness for his fellow Jews—acts of kindness that became the axis of his life, the narrow window through which others could glimpse the sublime qualities he concealed so well. The only official position he agreed to assume was delivering lectures in the beit midrash Chevrat Shas in Horodna. But his unofficial public role was that of a collector of charity. He gathered funds tirelessly and cared for the needs of all who required assistance, with enormous, superhuman effort. All regarded him as a holy man, yet one young boy understood that behind this figure of charitable deeds there lay a far loftier hidden personality. That boy’s name was Yisrael Meir HaKohen, who would one day become renowned as the Chafetz Chaim. The Chafetz Chaim became a disciple of R. Nachum’ka, observing his hidden conduct—conduct that profoundly shaped the Chafetz Chaim in many ways: his simplicity, his concealment, his flight from positions of authority, his immense devotion to bein adam lechavero... “And fire came down from heaven and surrounded them”: The legendary maggid, Rabbi Shalom Shwadron zt”l, related: The dayan, the Gaon R. Aryeh Leib Grosnas, told me: “I was a young student in Kaminetz, learning under R. Baruch Ber, author of Birkat Shmuel. One evening excitement filled the yeshivah—an esteemed guest had arrived to visit his friend, the Rosh Yeshivah: Rabbi Shalom of Eyshishok, a prominent disciple of the Chafetz Chaim. R. Leib Grosnas realized that after Ma’ariv the guest would go with the Rosh Yeshivah to his home, and out of respect for the visitor, the students who normally stayed in the open home of the Rosh Yeshivah would be asked to leave. So he slipped out before the end of the prayer, hid under a bed in the house, and thus merited to hear the conversation between those two giants.