Bidspirit auction | Chumash HaGiborim Manuscript of Rabbi

Chumash HaGiborim Manuscript of Rabbi Shmuel Aharon Rubin, Devoted Disciple and Publisher of the Sanzer Rebbe’s Divrei Chaim * Wonderful handwritten chiddushim on the Torah portions by the renowned gaon and chassid Rabbi Shmuel Aharon Rubin, Av Beis Din of Kartchin. Rabbi Shmuel Aharon was for many decades a talmid and friend of Rabbi Chaim of Sanz, who affectionately called him “my Shmuel Aharon.” He merited to be one of the editors of his holy sefer Divrei Chaim. The Divrei Chaim, in one of his letters to Rabbi Shmuel Aharon, blessed him: “May you merit to see generations of tzaddikim, amidst great abundance” (Kerem Shlomo, issue 56, p. 17). Indeed, among his descendants are the Rebbes shlita of Bobov-45 and Dombrova, New York. On leaf 24 verso, Rabbi Shmuel Aharon records a chassidic chiddush which, he writes, “was explained to me once in a dream” ! Bound at the beginning of the manuscript is an additional leaf in the handwriting of the author’s son, who relates that his father appeared to him in a dream and told him the name by which to call his sefer, together with its meaning. He writes: “On Wednesday night, Parshas Eikev, the fifteenth of Menachem Av, 1877, two weeks and three days after the passing of my saintly father, I saw him in my dream and asked him what names to give to his holy works. He told me what to name each one, but afterward I forgot them all, except this: for the commentary on the Torah, he called it ‘Chumash HaGiborim, ’ and said that it is like the verse ‘v’chamushim alu Bnei Yisrael’ — 'Bnei Yisrael went up with weapons, ' and Chumash HaGiborim is 'the weapon of the mighty.'” (At the bottom of the passage, a later handwritten note was added: “This was written by our cousin, the gaon Rabbi Menachem Mendel zt”l, ” — the author’s son.) Throughout the work, the author quotes extensively from the sefarim of Kabbalah, especially from the teachings of the Arizal, as well as from sifrei Chassidus such as Degel Machaneh Ephraim, Kedushas Levi, Yismach Moshe, Bnei Yissaschar, and others. The manuscript was written in the 1860s: at the beginning of the chiddushim on Parshas Bereishis, the year 1864 is mentioned, and at the beginning of the chiddushim on Parshas Toldos, the place and year is noted: Kartchin, 1867 — the year Rabbi Shmuel Aharon arrived in Kartchin. Rabbi Shmuel Aharon Rubin (ca. 1824 – 1877) , author of Beis Aharon on maseches Gittin and many other important works, was a towering scholar in both revealed and hidden Torah. He was a disciple of the ‘Aryeh Devi Ilai’ and Rabbi Ze’ev Wolf Frenkel, Av Beis Din of Peshavorsk, author of Meshiv KaHalachah — who is quoted in this very manuscript. He was a beloved chassid of the Divrei Chaim of Sanz, who referred to him as “my dear friend.” He served as editor of the Divrei Chaim’s teshuvos (as noted in his Sefer Shem Olam, vol. 2, §170). The Divrei Chaim praised him as “complete in Torah and fear of Heaven, ” and expressed his affection for him in his approbation to Beis Aharon. His son-in-law was Rabbi Shalom of Narol, father-in-law of Rabbi Bentzion Unger of Sanz-Dombrova, grandfather of the Rebbes of Bobov-45 and Dombrova, New York. The sefer was printed from this manuscript in Jerusalem, 1996. Kartchin (Korczyna), Poland, and elsewhere, c. 1860–1870. A volume comprising [115] pages in the handwriting of Rabbi Shmuel Aharon, with one additional page written by his son. Page Count: [1], 34, [1], 35–58 leaves. Size: 24 cm. Condition: Good; light restorations to the margins of the opening leaves (minor loss of a few words). Stains. Fine new binding. Provenance: Genazym Auction (2020).