Bidspirit auction | Remarkable Collection of Signatures from

Remarkable Collection of Signatures from the Leading Rabbanim of Galicia and Bukovina * Four leaves containing nearly sixty signatures of subscribers, together with several haskamos for the works of the renowned maggid Rabbi Mordechai Rubinstein of Zolkiew, who was held in great esteem by the leaders of his generation. With these very pages in hand, the author traveled throughout Galicia during the years 1874–1876, even venturing into the towns of the Carpathian region, gathering endorsements and signatures from the rabbanim and Torah leaders of each community he visited. The signatories represented here hail from the cities of Zolkiew, Drohobych, Sambor, Munkatch, Rohatyn, Kalish, Berezhany, Bobrka, Stryj, and Rzeszów. Among the signatories are rabbanim and distinguished lay leaders, including some of the most renowned Gedolei Hador: · Rabbi Yitzchak Eizik Weiss , Av Beis Din of Svalyava and Raavad of Munkatch (one line in his handwriting and signature). · Rabbi Yitzchak Shimshon Horowitz-Meizlish , Av Beis Din of Zolkiew and Bukovina (11 lines in his handwriting and signature). This haskama was printed in a substantially abridged form, with changes, in the sefer Mar Dror on the Haggadah of Pesach (Cracow, 1882). · Rabbi Eliyahu Horshovsky, Av Beis Din of Drohobych, author of Ezor Eliyahu (3 lines in his handwriting and signature). · Rabbi Pinchas Borstein , Av Beis Din of Seret (one line in his handwriting and signature). · Rabbi Yehudah Tzvi Holles , Av Beis Din of Sambor (3 and a half lines in his handwriting and signature). · Rabbi Chaim Simchah Vittels, Av Beis Din of Bobrka (5 and a half lines in his handwriting and signature). · Rabbi Zev Wolf Hammer , Av Beis Din of Bolechow and Raavad of Stryj (4 lines in his handwriting and signature). · Rabbi Meir Yehudah Leib HaKohen Glaz , Av Beis Din of Rohatyn (6 and a half lines in his handwriting and signature). · Rabbi Naftali Hertz Segal Landau , Av Beis Din of Strelisk (4 lines in his handwriting and signature). This is an extremely rare and highly significant item! The illustrious darshan Rabbi Mordechai Rubinstein (1844–1917) , a native of Zolkiew, was a great-grandson of the famed Zolkiew printer, Rabbi Mordechai Rubinstein. Following his marriage to the daughter of Rabbi Yisrael Kahane, Av Beis Din of Zolkiew, he moved to Lvov, where he became close to the Shoel U'Meishiv, who appointed him as the baal koreh in his private synagogue. In his eulogy for the Shoel U'Meishiv, Rabbi Mordechai stated that he had been in the Shoel U'Meishiv's home “tens of thousands of times.” Around 1875, he embarked on a journey across Galicia and its surrounding regions, delivering his outstanding drashos in each community he visited, captivating audiences wherever he went. In his haskamah for Mar Dror, Rabbi Shlomo Ganzfried, author of Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, relates that he attended one such drasha in Ungvar, and described the experience as hearing “sweet and pleasing words, ” for which he recited Birkas Hanehenin (a blessing of enjoyment). Following this journey, documented in the present pages, he settled in Cracow, where he was appointed darshan by Rabbi Shimon Sofer, serving in that capacity for nearly thirty years. In 1907, he moved to Eretz Yisrael. He delivered hespedim for the Gedolei Hador: The Shoel U'Meishiv (Givat Shaul, Lvov, 1875); the Malbim (Gviat Ari, Cracow, 1880); Rabbi Shimon Sofer, Av Beis Din of Cracow (Eya Sofer, Cracow, 1884). He merited to publish Yekar MiPaz of the Holy Maggid of Kozhnitz (Lvov, 1872), which he brought to print from manuscript, and Minchas Zikaron of Rabbi Wolf Ber Shif, grandson of Rabbi Yoel Baal Shem (Cracow, 1894). His major work, Shemen HaMor on the Torah and drashos — upon which most of these haskamos were granted — remains unpublished to this day. Galicia and surrounding regions, 1874–1876. Four leaves of varying sizes. Condition : Good to fair; marginal tears. Three leaves mounted on transparent mesh for preservation. --------------------- Biographical Background on Some of the Signatories Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac Weiss (1824–1894), Av Beis Din of Svalyava, was a Hungarian sage and tzaddik, and was a genius in both nigleh and nistar. He was a devoted chassid, deeply attached to his rebbes, and he edited their sefarim. He was born in Munkatch in 1824, and from a young age, he dedicated himself to Avodas Hashem in holiness and purity. He studied Torah, Chassidus, and Kabbalah from the Bnei Yissachar, Rabbi Yehudah Tzvi of Rozdil, the Sar Shalom of Belz, and Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac of Zidichov. Rabbi Yitzchak Horowitz-Meizlish (1787–1879) served as Av Beis Din in the cities of Zolkiew, Chernowitz, and throughout the region of Bukovina for sixty-six years (!), and was a fourteenth-generation descendant of rabbinic leaders (see Encyclopedia of Chachmei Galicia, vol. III, pp. 283–830). Rabbi Yisrael of Ruzhin, in a letter to him,