Bidspirit auction | Beit Leḥem Yehudah on Yoreh

Beit Leḥem Yehudah on Yoreh De‘ah, by Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch, Av Beit Din of Alik. Fürth 1747 — first edition. A distinguished copy with marginal glosses — dozens of notes, corrections, and sources in manuscript. - Sefer Beit Leḥem Yehudah on Yoreh De‘ah, by Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch son of Azriel of Vilna. Fürth 1747. Signatures and notes: Ancient signatures appear on the title page — one of them scratched over for erasure. At the center of the title page: ”קניתי מאלמנת המנוח הנז', ...ף במהר”ר מיכל עמזל(?) זללה״ה”. Dozens of notes, corrections, and cross-references appear in the margins in the handwriting of the second owner, from which it is evident that he was a great scholar. The author: Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch ben Azriel served as Av Beit Din of the community of Alik, and later as head of the rabbinical court of Lublin. For much of his life he resided in Vilna, and was therefore known as “Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch ben Azriel of Vilna.” While in Vilna he maintained close ties with its leading rabbis, including Rabbi Yoel, grandson of the Taz and author of Meginnei Zahav, and the gaon Rabbi Menachem Mendel, Av Beit Din of Kratzin, author of Ateret Zekenim. R.i Tzvi authored fundamental works frequently cited in halakhic literature: Beit Leḥem Yehudah (bearing the approbation of Rabbi Elazar Rokeach) on Shulḥan Arukh, Yoreh De‘ah, first printed in 1739; and Ateret Tzvi on Shulḥan Arukh, Ḥoshen Mishpat, printed in 1722. The second edition of Beit Leḥem Yehudah was printed in Fürth 1747 by Rabbi Efrayim Zalman, son of Rabbi Eliakim Fybesh, who “set his mind… to print it again as originally, and added from his own responsa… which the author had omitted… and called it Sha’ar Efrayim, joining Yehudah and Efrayim together beneath one tent.” This volume is therefore the first printing of Beit Leḥem Yehudah together with Sha’ar Efrayim.