Bidspirit auction | First Edition of the Sefer

First Edition of the Sefer Yesod Ohr Zarua –  Wide Margins. Zhitomir, 1862. Shapira Press. * A famous and particularly important sefer yesod from the era of the Rishonim: Ohr Zarua by Rabbi Yitzchak ben Moshe of Vienna, containing halachic rulings and teshuvos. This is the first printed edition of the work, published more than six hundred years after it was composed! Ohr Zarua is cited extensively by many poskim through the end of the period of the Rishonim. Thereafter, however, nearly all of the manuscript copies appear to have been lost or destroyed. The leading poskim from the period of the Achronim — including the Beis Yosef and the Rema — never saw the complete work itself, but only quotations, abridgments, and excerpts preserved by earlier authorities. (The Chida, whose knowledge of Torah literature was legendary, notes in Shem HaGedolim that he had seen a partial manuscript, describing it as “great in both quantity and quality.”) When the sefer was finally printed for the first time — in the present edition — it generated tremendous excitement among the Gedolei Hador, who until then had known it only through the many references found throughout the halachic literature. In his approbation, the Shoel U'Meishiv writes: “A sample containing Simanim 251 and 252 was sent to me, and I recited the blessing: 'Blessed is the Creator of the luminaries; light is sown for the righteous and joy for the upright in heart.' Fortunate are we that we have merited this!” Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor of Kovno likewise writes: “Fortunate is the generation that merited this, and fortunate are the eyes that behold it.” This edition was printed by the partners Rabbi Chanina Lipa and Rabbi Yehoshua Heshel Shapira, grandsons of the Rav of Slavita. A fine printing with wide margins. This edition contains, for the first time, Parts I and II, printed from the manuscript of Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Lehren (now preserved in the Rosenthaliana Library). Nearly thirty years later, Parts III and IV were printed in Jerusalem from a different manuscript preserved in the British Museum. The author, Rabbeinu Yitzchak ben Moshe of Vienna, known as “Reb Yitzchak Ohr Zarua” (d. 1250), was one of the greatest Ashkenazic Rishonim. He studied in the great yeshivos of Germany and France and studied under many of the Torah greats of his generation, including the Raavyah — whose teachings he quotes extensively — the Sar of Coucy, Rabbi Yehudah HaChassid, Ba’al HaRokeach, and others. His primary disciple was the Maharam of Rottenberg, the teacher of the Mordechai, the Rosh, and others. The sefer is of exceptional importance because it preserves halachic rulings and traditions from the Geonim and the Rishonim, often quoting them at length over the course of entire pages. Zhitomir, 1862. First edition. Two parts with separate title pages. Page Count: Part I: 2, [1], 3–116 leaves. Part II: 2, 92 leaves. Condition: Good overall condition. Wide margins. Attractive copy. Minor repairs to the inner margins of a few leaves. Light wear to the title page. Old leather binding with a later spine. Bibliography: Stefansky, Sifrei Yesod, no. 233.