Two Books Owned by Satmar Attendants – Rabbi Shraga Feivish Ashkenazi and his Son Rabbi Yosel Ashkenazi – ...

Two Books Owned by Satmar Attendants – Rabbi Shraga Feivish Ashkenazi and his Son Rabbi Yosel Ashkenazi – Signatures and Stamps

Two books owned by R. Shraga Feivish Ashkenazi and his son R. Yosef Ashkenazi, attendants of Rebbe Yoel of Satmar:

1. Sefer HaManhig. Laws, customs, prayers and blessings, by R. Avraham ben Natan HaYarchi (the Raavan). Lviv: D. H. Schrenzel, 1858. Copy belonging to R. Shraga Feivish Ashkenazi in his youth, while living in Safed and before immigrating to Hungary. His stamps on the title page and last leaf: "Shraga Feivish Ashkenazi in Safed"; "Shraga Feivish Ashkenazi in Safed – Fawisch Aschknasi, Saffed" (in Hebrew and Latin characters). Additional stamps inscribed: "My son Ephraim Yosef Dov, born… 12 Kislev, 1911". Short handwritten glosses on margins of some leaves.

[92] leaves. Approx. 21 cm. Good condition. Light stains. Light worming. Reinforced with tape on some margins. Stamps. New leather binding.

2. Sefer HaGan and Derech Moshe, laws, guidance and ethical teachings by R. Yitzchak son of Eliezer and R. Moshe Kahana of Gewitsch (Jevíčko). Piotrków: M. Knoster of Warsaw, [1910]. Copy of R. Efraim Yosef Dov Ashkenazi. His stamps on the title page from when he lived in Carei alongside his teacher, Rebbe Yoel, who served as rabbi of the city: "Ephraim Yosef Dov Ashkenazi, Carei"; his ownership stamp from a later period, after he moved with his Rebbe to Satmar: "Ephraim Yosef Ashkenazi, Satmar".

[1], 1-36 leaves. 19.5 cm. Good condition. Uneven trimming of sheets; some sheets are untrimmed. New binding.

The famous Chassid R. Shraga Feivish Ashkenazi (born ca. 1885, perished in the Holocaust 1944), faithful attendant of Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum of Satmar (both the Rebbe and his attendant were descendants of R. Moshe David Ashkenazi of Töltéstava, father-in-law of the Yitav Lev). Son-in-law of R. Yaakov Yitzchak Unger of Safed (descendant of Rebbe Mordechai David Unger of Dąbrowa). Travelled as an emissary from Eretz Israel at the end of the World War I period and reached Hungary. At the advice of the rabbi of Polaniec, R. Shraga Feivish became intimate with his relative, the Rebbe of Satmar, and became his close assistant and attendant for about 27 years (during the latter's tenures as rabbi of Irshava, Carei and Satmar, until the Holocaust).

His son, R. Efraim Yosef Dov Ashkenazi (1911-2002), attendant and confidant of the Rebbe of Satmar for close to sixty years, and his close assistant on all communal matters. R. Yosef was an exceptionally intelligent Torah scholar, great in Chassidut and fear of God. In the Holocaust, R. Yosef accompanied the Rebbe on his journey in the famous Kastner rescue train, later immigrating with him to Eretz Israel and shortly thereafter moving with him to the United States. He was the owner of the Yerushalayim publishing house in Williamsburg. He edited his Rebbe's books in Halachah and Aggadah and published them (see his introduction to Responsa Divrei Yoel). Author of She'erit Yosef on the Torah.