Leilão Bidspirit | Chabad Manuscript (”Buch 7”) –

Chabad Manuscript (”Buch 7”) – Responsa Tzemach Tzedek with Many Leaves and Glosses in the Author's Handwriting – Includes Unpublished Halachic Responsa – Lubavitch, 1830s - Manuscript volume, Chabad Buch, with halachic responsa by Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Tzemach Tzedek of Lubavitch. [Lubavitch, ca. 1830s]. The manuscript was proofread by its author, the Tzemach Tzedek of Lubavitch, and includes additions, emphases, deletions and many glosses in his handwriting. Moreover, the present volume, comprised of various booklets in several hands, also appears to include many pages handwritten by the Tzemach Tzedek himself. At the beginning of the volume are two index leaves. Some places include instructions for editing and copying in margins of leaf and between lines. The leaves are foliated by hand, 1-157 (possibly by the Tzemach Tzedek, when the volume was bound). A piece of paper from the original wrapper is mounted on the interior of the front binding, with the handwritten inscription (Yiddish and Hebrew): ”Buch number 7 / Proofread”. Similar papers are mounted on other volumes handwritten by the Tzemach Tzedek, present in the Lubavitch library (see: Ms. 2047, Ms. 1096, Ms. 227, Ms. 233, Ms. 1019). The present volume appears to be the first part of Ms. 1050, which is written mostly by the Tzemach Tzedek himself, with binding labeled ”Buch number 9” (on the endpaper, the Tzemach Tzedek wrote: ”Responsa Even HaEzer / Called second Mahadura, Part II”. See: Tzemach Tzedek, Orach Chaim, II [New York, 2018], p. 445, paragraph 17). The last dated responsum in the second part is dated 1843, therefore, we may date the responsa in the present volume, which is the first part, somewhat earlier, to ca. the 1830s. This Buch comprises many lengthy halachic responsa, most of which have been printed (with variations) in Responsa Tzemach Tzedek – most in Even HaEzer and Piskei Dinim (on Choshen Mishpat), and others in Yoreh Deah, Choshen Mishpat and the author's Talmudic novellae. The printed responsa include discussion of a girl who grabbed a silver ruble from a man (Even HaEzer 93); a kohen who tried to give his wife a Get (Even HaEzer 266); how to spell the nickname Kushya (Even HaEzer 207); the spelling of Gedaliah (Even HaEzer 209); the spelling of Gershon (Even HaEzer 208); an agunah from Kholmets (Even HaEzer 51); a messenger who brought a Get to a woman from another country who doesn't know the husband (Even HaEzer 286); a Get that had mistakenly described a woman's father as a kohen (Even HaEzer 5); a payment to the scribe made by the parents of the husband or bride (Even HaEzer 150); a discussion of the topic of Tekafo Kohen (Piskei Dinim, Choshen Mishpat 25); an oath made in writing (Yoreh Deah 185); a discussion of Migo (Piskei Dinim, Choshen Mishpat 75); a question about testimony (Even HaEzer 52); a seizure of books for debt (Choshen Mishpat 1); and more. The Buch also contains responsa and sections that are not printed anywhere in Responsa Tzemach Tzedek, on the topics of halachic documents, sale of land, forced arbitration, collateral and more. Some of these responsa are on pp. 44a-45a, 49a; 121a-122a, 123a-125a, 128a-b, 132b-133b, 135a-b and other passages (the Yagdil Torah periodical [XXXV, p. 221, note 44] mentions the responsum on p. 49a, which ”has not come down to us”). The Tzemach Tzedek would proofread and revise the drafts written by various copyists, adding many glosses and additions in the margins, as stated in Beit Rebbe (3:5). R. Shalom DovBer Levine, director of the Chabad library, writes that ”nearly eighty volumes remain in the library, in his handwriting… or that of his scribe, to whom he would give his writings to be copied, whereupon the Tzemach Tzedek would review these volumes and proofread them with many additions” (Sifriyat Lubavitch, pp. 28-29). Responsa Tzemach Tzedek The Tzemach Tzedek was one of the leading authors of responsa in his generation, with over a thousand of his halachic responsa printed in the Tzemach Tzedek series. Despite this, most responsa that he wrote over the course of some fifty years to important rabbis in Belarus, Ukraine and Lithuania were lost in multiple fires that broke out in Lubavitch over the years. During his lifetime, the Tzemach Tzedek did not allow his halachic responsa, novellae and Chassidic discourses and homilies to be printed. His teachings were put in writing by various copyists and remained in manuscript. After his passing on 13th Nisan 1866, R. Chaim Yaakov Widrewitz and R. Shimon son of R. David began to prepare his Talmudic novellae, halachic rulings and responsa for press. These writings remained dispersed through tens of volumes written in the Rebbe's handwriting and tens of volumes of copies held by his followers, or which were collected one by one by the original recipients of the responsa. The collection, arrangement, copying,