Sefer Shaar Efraim, responsa by Rabbi Efraim HaKohen of Vilna (grandfather of Chacham Tzvi). Sulzbach, 1688. First edition.
Signature on the title page of the Holy Gaon Rabbi Avigdor Margulies Rabbi of Chentshin (Chechiny) ‘‘Hatzair Avigdor resting here in Chenchin & it’s environs 1723”
Rabbi Avigdor Margaliot (ca.1670-ca. 1753) was one of the greats of his generation, in his generation Dor Deah, and today his name is somewhat forgotten. He was famous as a Baal Mofet.
His signature is extremely rare! It is not known about another hand signature of His Holy hand that exists today!
Hundreds of important families branched from him.
Please refer to Hebrew catalog for biographical details.
Overall Good- Fair condition. stains, title page and first three pages have marginal page repairs and marginal page tears, top corners of pages frayed, pages 58-100 pages missing top corner sometimes affecting text, pages 101 until end of book have top corner repairs, affecting text, last page has heavy repairs affecting text, original binding damaged, front cover detached.
Flyleaf with signatures of Israel Jacobsohn of Halberstadt.
Israel Jacobson ( 1768 Halberstadt –1828 Berlin) was a German-Jewish philanthropist and communal organiser. Jacobson pioneered political, educational and religious reforms in the early days of Jewish emancipation.
The only son of wealthy businessman and philanthropist Israel Jacob (philanthropist), Jacobson’s parents lived modestly yet contributed considerably to reducing the community debt. Israel attended mainly the Jewish religious school, His level of understanding of rabbinic literature and Hebrew led professors at the University of Helmstedt, where he was eventually granted a degree, to declare that Jacobson was a Hebrew scholar.
At the age of eighteen, after having accumulated a small fortune, he married Mink Samson, the daughter of respected financier Herz Samson and granddaughter of Philip Samson. Through the Samson family, Jacobson became friends with Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick and Lunenburg, Prince of Wolfenbüttel, favorite nephew of Frederick II of Prussia. Jacobson took up his residence in Brunswick and, possessing great financial ability, rapidly increased his fortune. It was through Jacobson’s influence and persuasion that in 1803 the so-called "Leibzoll" (poll-tax), then levied from Jews in many German states, was abolished in the ducal Brunswick-Lunenburgian Principality of Wolfenbüttel.
Jacobson’s innovations were quite restrained, and more importantly his mode of thought was still within a traditional framework. He justified himself on conventional halachic grounds, later enlisting scholars to write responsa in favour of his worship style. The Westphalian Consistory’s aroused little ire at their time. Its reforms were adopted by German neo-Orthodoxy, and Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch "integrated fully into his worldview the program of the moderate Haskalah and even the aesthetic reforms of the Westphalian consistory."
30.5 Cm.
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Lot #37