Responsa Ne'eman Shmuel – Thessaloniki, 1723 – Copy of Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum of Satmar, with Signature of Rabbi ...

Responsa Ne'eman Shmuel – Thessaloniki, 1723 – Copy of Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum of Satmar, with Signature of Rabbi Wolf HaLevi Boskowitz, Author of Seder Mishnah

Responsa Ne'eman Shmuel, by R. Shmuel Yitzchak [Modiano]. Thessaloniki: Avraham son of David Nachman and Yom Tov Konfilias, 1723. First edition.

Distinguished copy. On title page, signature of the Seder Mishnah, "Wolf HaLevi Boskowitz". This copy later came into the possession of Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum, Rabbi of Satmar.

On leaves 2 and 128 appear stamps of the Satmar Rebbe, from his youth: "Yoel Teitelbaum son of the Tzaddik – Sighet" (the stamps date to his residence in his family's home in Sighet, after the passing of his father, the Kedushat Yom Tov, in Shevat 1904, before he moved to Satmar in 1905). On title page and last page appear stamps: "Yoel Teitelbaum, Rabbi of Irshava and the region". We surmise that these stamps were made and stamped on the books at a later date than his rabbinic tenure in Irshava – see Kedem, Auction 99, November 5, 2024, Lot 185. The title page contains catalogue inscriptions made during the arrangement of the Satmar Rebbe's library in his home in the United States.

Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum of Satmar (1887-1979), author of Divre Yoel, a leader of his generation, president of the Edah HaCharedit in Jerusalem and leader of American Orthodox Jewry, one of the founding pillars of Chassidic Jewry after the Holocaust. Born in Sighet, he was the son of Rebbe Chananiah Yom Tov Lipa, the Kedushat Yom Tov, and grandson of Rebbe Yekutiel Yehudah, the Yitav Lev, who both served as rabbis of Sighet (Sighetu Marmației) and were leaders of Chassidic Jewry in the Maramureș region. He was renowned from his youth for his sharpness and intellectual capacities, as well as for his holiness and outstanding purity. After his marriage to the daughter of Rebbe Avraham Chaim Horowitz of Polaniec, he settled in Satmar and taught Torah and Chassidut to an elite group of disciples and followers. He later served as Rabbi of Irshava (1911-1915, 1922-1926), Karoly (Carei; from 1926) and Satmar (Satu Mare; from 1934), managing in each of these places a large yeshiva and Chassidic court. He stood at the helm of faithful, uncompromising Orthodox Jewry in the Maramureș region. During the Holocaust, he was rescued through the famous Kastner Train, and after a journey through Bergen-Belsen, Switzerland and Eretz Israel, he reached the United States, where he established the largest Chassidic group in the world.

R. Binyamin Ze'ev Wolf HaLevi Boskowitz (1740-1818), author of Seder Mishnah, was a prominent Hungarian rabbi, son and disciple of the Machatzit HaShekel, R. Shmuel HaLevi of Kelin (Kolín), Rabbi of Boskowitz. He served in rabbinic and Torah positions in Aszód, Přeštice (where he became intimately acquainted with R. Moshe Sofer, the Chatam Sofer; see Ishim BiTeshuvot Chatam Sofer, 113), Budapest, Balassagyarmat, Kolín and Bonyhád. He trained hundreds of great Torah scholars. Famed for his genius and sharp wit, he was held in high esteem by the leading Torah scholars of his time, including the Noda BiYehudah, R. Betzalel Ronsburg, R. Mordechai Benet, the Chatam Sofer, R. Akiva Eger and others. His Talmudic glosses, Agudat Ezov, are printed in the Vienna 1830-1833 Talmud edition, with the approbation of the Chatam Sofer. Among other printed and manuscript works, especially worthy of note is his extensive Seder Mishnah, which covers the entire Mishneh Torah by the Rambam, and has yet to be published in full.

[1], 190 leaves. 29 cm. Overall good condition. Stains and signs of heavy use. Worming to title page and light worming to first and last leaves. Stamps. Elegant new leather binding.