Bidspirit auction | A gift from the author

A gift from the author himself to the Polish gaon – the Kaf HaChaim, Volume I and Volume VI, first editions - The sefer Kaf HaChaim on Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim, Volume I and Volume VI By Rabbi Yaakov Chaim Sofer Jerusalem – first edition They were received by the gaon Rabbi Moshe Yehudah Kershenbaum, may God avenge his blood, one of the prominent rabbis of Poland, as a personal gift from the author, of blessed memory. Rabbi Yaakov Chaim Sofer: ” ראש חודש אדר א' ביום שבת שנת תרע”ו, שמעתי שואלים: משה הניח יהושע, חכם רבי יוסף חיים [ה'בן איש חי'] מי הניח במקומו? וענה ואמר: חתנו של יצחק אבודהובא”... Thus is found written in the hidden notes discovered in the handwriting of the holy gaon, Rabbi Yaakov Chaim Sofer, of blessed memory, author of the Kaf HaChaim. The son-in-law of Yitzchak Abudahova – is none other than the author of these very notes himself, Rabbi Yaakov Chaim Sofer. The author of the Kaf HaChaim was born in Baghdad, where he grew under the shadow of the great luminaries, Rabbi Abdallah Somech and the Ben Ish Chai. In 1904, in his thirties, he ascended to the holy city of Jerusalem, where he devoted himself to Torah day and night, authoring many works, foremost among them his monumental creation Kaf HaChaim on Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim and the beginning of Yoreh De’ah. After his passing on Shabbat, the 9th of Sivan, 1879, there were found among his writings notes that he had hidden, including accounts of visions and dreams granted to him. In the sefer Kaf HaChaim, he quotes several times revelations he received from an “anonymous God-fearing man” in a dream. These revelations appear in those very pages, and it later became known that the author himself was that very “God-fearing man” to whom hidden secrets of Torah were revealed. Among these revelations – it was made known to the author of the Kaf HaChaim that in Heaven he was viewed as the spiritual successor of his teacher, the Ben Ish Chai, just as Yehoshua was the successor of Moshe Rabbeinu. The gaon Rabbi Moshe Yehudah Kershenbaum: Rabbi Moshe Yehudah Kershenbaum was born around 1900 in Otwotzk, Poland. His grandfather, Rabbi Yitzchak Menachem Yanovsky, served as Av Beit Din of the city. He studied at the Metivta in Warsaw, where he received semicha from the author of Kli Chemdah. In the years 1925–1926 he edited the Metivta’s periodical Degel HaTze’irim in Warsaw. At his request, the leader of the generation, the Achiezer, Rabbi Chaim Ozer of Vilna, sent him a Torah letter to publish, and at the head of the letter he praises Rabbi Kershenbaum for his great work in elevating the stature of Torah among the youth. From 1926 to 1930 he served as the editor of the periodical Degel HaRabbanim, in which the great sages of the generation participated, including the holy gaon of Ostrovtze, Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, and the Rogatchover Gaon, author of Tzafnat Paneach. With many of them he engaged in ongoing correspondence, even beyond the printed issues. In Responsa Tzafnat Paneach (vol. I, 40) the brilliant gaon, who did not bestow praise lightly, addresses him as: ”להרב החו”ב [החריף ובקי] משה יהודה קערשענבוים באוטוואצק” We thus learn that this letter was written in his youth, before he received a rabbinic position. In 1926 he married the daughter of Rabbi Zelig Rosenstein, Moreh Tzedek in Warsaw and one of the leaders of the Rabbinical Council in the Warsaw Ghetto during the years of destruction. In 1928 he was appointed rabbi of the town of Andziow near Bialystok. His rabbinate extended also to the neighboring town of Vishniova Gora. He was a member of the Rabbinical Union of Poland and published many Torah essays in various journals, and the great sages of Israel treated his words with respect. Rabbi Moshe Yehudah was murdered the Holocaust. See fascinating item from him no. 16.