Pamphlet Ohev Mishpat “On the fights in Sighet…which has divided the nation in two…the Sefardi community and their brothers have risen to oppose them hatefully…the Orthodox community…with writing from rabbi Feivel HaLevi Av Beit Din of Brodshin, with Ktav Yosher at the end—takanot of the Sefardim.
Only Edition, Lemberg, 1888. Rare.
The Split in the Sighet Community:
In 1883-1890, a stormy controversy broke out in Sighet between the members of the community who joined the Central Bureau of the Autonomous Orthodox Jewish Communities [ which was led by the “Ashkenazi” Beit Midrash of the Chatam Sofer], and a group of community members who refused to be subordinate to the bureau, and established an independent, Status Quo "Sefardic" community. The Orthodox community was headed by the Yitav Lev and the Kedushat Yom Tov of Sighet, while the seceding camp was led by the powerful Kahana family, and some Vizhnitz Chassidim.
The two communities agreed to undergo mediation and a psak from a beit din led by Rebbi Baruch of Gorlitz (who was then rabbi of Rodnik), the son of the Divrei Haim of Sanz, who published a psak in which he tended to favor the Kahal Orthodoxim. Rabbi Feivel HaLevi, Av Beit Din of Brodshin, published against him a letter in which he justifies the Adat Sefardim. The two sides released Seforim and pamphlets to convince and justify their opinions.
Letters supporting the "Sepharad Congregation" are printed in this Sefer, from Rabbi Baruch Hager of Vishnitz, Rabbi Y. A. Ittinga of Lvov, the Netziv of Volozhin, and others. In retaliation, the orthodox community published the Sefer "Michtav Galui– Milchemet Mitzva" (Sighet, 1888, See next Lot.).
With time, the split in the Sighet community affected many other Hungarian communities, with most the Hungarian rabbis, as well as many rabbis from Galicia and Poland, taking sides in the polemic.
On the back of the title page, there’s a Hebrew manuscript) (likely by one of the Tabak family members) with details of the unfolding Polemic.
Beezrat Hashem, the oposing side printed a Sefer called Milchemet Mitzva which includes a phamphlet Ein Mishpat which he conducted against Ohev Mishpat and there it explains wheter the justice is al pi Torah religion and the din, and to this all the Hungarian greats gave their witnesses that the justice was with him, that the Psak Din of the rabbi is truth and justice to the truth of the Torah.
And in particular now, as the years passed on, even the righteous among the Kahana family do not eat this from this Shochet, and every person who has the spirit of the Torah in him accepted the prohibition given by more than one hundred and one rabbis, All Jews, including their descendants, have also accepted this.
As for the Sephardim, there’s a Rabbi among them called "Prediger, " and they are Sabbath desecrators and suspected regarding their adherence to the entire Torah. From this alone, we can assess who acts justly, and this is sufficient for those who understand. I have written this to emphasize the point made in "Ein Mishpat, "
Stamps & signatures of the Tabak family from Solotvyn (Slotvina, Sołotwina). Alexander Tabak, Shalom Tabak, Israel Tabak son of Shneur Zalman Tabak.
Stamps: Osher Dov (Bernat) Srulovits Shochet of Vrbovce.
[4], 16 pp; [24], 25-104 leaves. 21.4 Cm.
Good Condition, few stains, original binding partly detached.
See also next Lot.
Regarding the dispute in the community of Sighet, refer to the sources mentioned by Naftali Ben-Menachem in his book \"MiSiferot Yisrael BeHungarya, \" Jerusalem 1958, page 114.
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Lot #429