Tosefot Bikurim – Shklow, 1809 – Copy of R. Levi Yitzchak Schneersohn of Paddabranka (Grandson of the Tzemach ...

Tosefot Bikurim – Shklow, 1809 – Copy of R. Levi Yitzchak Schneersohn of Paddabranka (Grandson of the Tzemach Tzedek of Lubavitch), with his Signature

Tosefot Bikurim, commentary on Tosefta by R. Menachem Nachum of Chavusy. Shklow: Tzvi Hirsch son of Meir HaLevi, Yitzchak son of Shmuel Zanvil Segal and Yitzchak son of Shmuel, [1809]. First edition.
Copy of R. Levi Yitzchak Schneersohn (son of R. Baruch Shalom son of the Tzemach Tzedek; great-grandfather of the Lubavitcher Rebbe) – his signature on the title page: "Levi Yitzchak son of my father and master R. Baruch Shalom Schneersohn", with a blessing for the living following his father's name. This signature of R. Levi Yitzchak is from his youth, before the passing of his father R. Baruch Shalom in 1869. To the best of our knowledge, this signature of his is the only one that has survived to the present day, and no other signature of his is known (in the Chabad-Lubavitch Library there is a wax seal with a partial ownership inscription attributed to him: "[Levi Yi]tzchak son of… R. Baruch Shal[om] Schneer[sohn]").
On the endpapers are additional ownership inscriptions: "Belongs to… R. Baruch son of R. Alexander Ziskind of Yanavichy"; "In honor of… R. Chaim Aryeh Leib". Stamp: "Moshe Loeb – Elshanske".

R. Levi Yitzchak Schneersohn (1834-1877), eldest son of R. Baruch Shalom Schneersohn, eldest son of the Tzemach Tzedek of Lubavitch. Originally served as rabbi and posek in Paddabranka (Mogilev governorate), and at the end of his life he was appointed Rabbi of Beshankovichy (Vitebsk governorate). After the passing of the Tzemach Tzedek (1866), R. Baruch Shalom was the only of his sons who did not take a leadership role, instead becoming a follower of his younger brother R. Shmuel, the Rebbe Maharash of Lubavitch. Like his father, R. Levi Yitzchak of Paddabranka followed his uncle the Maharash, as did his sons and descendants. In the writings of his son, R. Baruch Shalom, he cites practices he saw, and teachings heard by R. Levi Yitzchak from his grandfather the Tzemach Tzedek (Reshimot HaRabash, pp. 33, 70). It is there told how he once sat and sang a tune in a Shabbat meal by his uncle, the Rebbe Maharash of Lubavitch: "…how my father and master was a great singer and prayer, with wondrous loftiness, and that once on Shabbat by… the Rebbe Maharash, he asked him to sing during the meal, and he sang the prayer 'Meloch Al Kol HaOlam Kulo'…" (ibid., p. 120).
R. Levi Yitzchak of Paddabranka left three sons: R. Avraham, R. Menachem Mendel of Revka and R. Baruch Shneur Zalman (the Rabash) – father of R. Levi Yitzchak Schneersohn, Rabbi of Yekaterinoslav (Dnipropetrovsk), father of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. His works in Torah and halachah remain in manuscript. A responsum from him regarding the laws of kashrut is printed in the anthology Yagdil Torah (issue 4; New York, 1978, pp. 181).
Note that R. Levi Yitzchak of Paddabranka passed away young, and the information on him is meager and imprecise. In Nachalat Avot by R. Levi Ovchinski (Part I, 34), the biographical information about him is somewhat different: "The great R. Levi Yitzchak son of the Tzaddik R. Baruch Shalom son of the Rebbe author of Tzemach Tzedek – expert rabbi, saintly and ascetic… was rabbi and posek in Velizh, after which he left rabbinical posts. Died in 1872 around the age of 38".

[3], 52, 55-80 leaves. 34 cm. Fair condition. Stains and wear. Tears and worming, affecting text. Margins of some leaves reinforced with paper. Inscriptions. Stamp. Detached endpapers. Old binding, damaged and worn; partially detached and missing spine.