Bidspirit auction | Rare “A Wonderful Segulah for

Rare “A Wonderful Segulah for Illuminating the Soul”: Large Printed Sheet in Honor of the Hillulah of Rashbi, with an Illustration of the Structure of the Tziyun – Jerusalem, 1889 * A large printed sheet issued in honor of the hillulah of the Divine Tanna, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, in Meron in the Galil. At the top of the sheet, there is a large and rare woodcut engraving depicting the beis medrash built over the tziyun of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, the tziyun of Rabbi Yochanan HaSandlar, and additional holy sites. Printed beneath the illustration is the famous piyut “Bar Yochai, ” composed by the Kabbalist Rabbi Shimon ben Lavi of Tripoli, the recitation of which is described as “a wonderful segulah for illuminating the soul, ” together with the piyut “Bar Yochai, K’Nehora d’Shimsha, ” by the Kabbalist Rabbi Dovid di Modina. An especially large and impressive sheet, its height approaching half a meter! This sheet is rare and is not held in the National Library of Israel's collections. It is not documented in the first edition of Shoshana HaLevi's book on the printing presses of Jerusalem (1963). In the second edition (1976), it is recorded as part of a private collection. Jerusalem, 1889. Yitzchak Hirshenson Press. One large sheet, approximately 28 × 49.5 cm. Printed on one side only. Condition: Fair; with tears, repairs on the reverse, and stains. Bibliography : Shoshana HaLevi, no. 641. — — — — — — — — — — — — — For a vivid description of the celebrations of the hillulah of Rashbi in the year 1888, see the sefer Masa Meron (first printed in Jerusalem, 1889) by the chassid Rabbi Menachem Mendel Rabin, son of Rabbi Shmuel Aharon Rabin, Av Beis Din of Kartshin.