Bidspirit auction | Eight Pages in the Handwriting

Eight Pages in the Handwriting of the Renowned Gaon of His Generation Rabbi Elazar Kalir, Av Beis Din of Kellen, Author of Or Chadash – Derashah for Shabbos HaGadol – Kellen, 1799 On the first page of the present Derashah, Rabbi Elazar writes introductory words known as “B’Reshus”, composed in refined language and elegant rhetoric. The Derashah is written in a very fine hand, with deletions, corrections, and additions. The present Derashah was printed in the journal Moriah, issue 125, p. 38 and onward (according to the editor’s note there: “This Derashah for Shabbos HaGadol is printed from the original Holy Handwritten manuscript of the Gaon, the author, z”l”). The Gaon Rabbi Elazar Kalir (1738–Cheshvan 1801), among the most renowned Gedolei Yisrael of his generation, served as Av Beis Din and Rosh Yeshiva in the cities of Zabeldova, Rechnitz (1768–1781), and Kellen (1781–1801). In every place he resided he also headed a Yeshiva that produced many disciples, and numerous Halachic authorities of his generation were among his foremost students. He corresponded extensively with the author of Noda B'Yehuda, and dozens of responsa printed in Shu”t Noda B'Yehuda are addressed to him. The Noda B'Yehuda held him in the highest esteem, although Rabbi Elazar was decades younger, and in one of his responsa he refers to him as: ”הגאון המופלא ומופלג, תנא ופליג, נר ישראל פטיש החזק עמוד הימני, כבוד קדושת שמו” In his approbation to Or Chadash on Tractate Pesachim, the Noda B'Yehuda writes regarding Rabbi Elazar’s Chiddushim that they are “words fitting for one of the Rishonim!” Rabbi Baruch Yetteles of Prague writes in the introduction to his Sefer Ta’am HaMelech about Rabbi Elazar’s standing in Central Europe after the passing of Rabbi Yechezkel Landau: ”ואחרי מות הגאון 'נודע ביהודה' היה הרב אלעזר בעל ספרי 'אור חדש', ראש לישראל, האחד הנשאר לנו במדינתנו אשר עינינו עליו, ולהרבה מלומדי פראג נחשב כמרא דאתרא אשר מאורו אור לנו”. Author of the Sefarim: Or Chadash on the Torah (Fürth, 1766), Or Chadash on Tractate Pesachim (Frankfurt an der Oder, 1776), Or Chadash on Tractate Kiddushin (Vienna, 1769), Chavos Yair HeChadash (Prague, 1792), and Shu”t Cheker Halacha (Vienna, 1838). [4] leaves (8 written pages). 24 cm. Good–fair condition. Tear along the inner margin with damage to the text. Stains.