Auction 105: Rabbinic Autograph Letters & Passover Haggadot.
By Kestenbaum & Company
Apr 4, 2024
The Brooklyn Navy Yard Building 77, 141 Flushing Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11205, United States

The auction commences with a first edition of the Segulah-book "Raziel HaMalach" (Lot 1); followed by books that were owned by significant rabbis: 


R. Shlomo Ganzfried (Lot 5); The Aruch Hashulchan (Lot 6); R. Meir Shapira of Lublin (Lot 68)


The most valuable lot offered is a Sefer that was personally owned by, and has a long personal inscription in the hand of, R. Chaim Volozhiner (Lot 4).


The auction contains many excellent offerings of Autograph Letters including:


The first Rebbe of Sadigura, R. Avraham Ya'akov (Lot 13); The Chofetz Chaim (Lots 17-20); The Ohr Same’ach (Lot 41); The Kesav Sofer (Lot 58); Reb Chaim Brisker (Lot 59); The Lubavitcher Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka and her sister (Lots 50-51); and dozens more of such letters.


Autograph manuscripts of note are those from R. Menachem Mendel of Shklov (Lot 9A); The Tiferes Yisroel (Lot 40); and a 14th-century Ramba'n manuscript (Lot 9).


As per annual tradition, this pre-Pesach auction features a wide selection of Passover Hagadot:


The rare, the exotic and the curious; with examples from 1545 through until 2008.


Among particularly Early examples: Lot 87 (Venice, 1545); Lot 88 (Riva di Trento, 1561) and Lot 95 (Salonika, 1569).


Beautifully illustrated Hagadoth include: Lot 93 (Venice, 1740); Lot 85 (India, 1874) and Lot 115 (The Avner Moriah Hagadah).


Historically significant Hagadoth include Lot 72 (American/Canadian/Anglo-related) and many examples from Germany, India, Jerusalem; as well as first edition Hagadah commentaries by the Vilna Gaon (Lot 96), R. Ya'akov Emden (Lot 78); and ending with several facsimile editions. 



More details
The auction has ended

LOT 2:

YEHUDAH HALEVI.

Sepher HaKuzari [philosophy]. ...

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Sold for: $1,000
Start price:
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Estimated price :
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Buyer's Premium: 25%
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Auction took place on Apr 4, 2024 at Kestenbaum & Company
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YEHUDAH HALEVI.

Sepher HaKuzari [philosophy]. Translated from Arabic into Hebrew by Yehudah ibn Tibbon. With commentary Kol Yehudah by Yehudah Moscato.


Third edition, FIRST EDITION with commentary.


ff. 299. Occasional wear, stained in places, title remargined, f.2 loose. Later mottled calf, rubbed, trace wormed. 4to.

Vinograd, Venice 794.


Venice, Giovanni di Gara, 1594.


Completed in the Hebrew year 4900 (1139/40 CE), the Kuzari (full title:) “A Book of Refutation and Proof on Behalf of the Despised Religion” is the likely most influential works of the Spanish Jewish philosopher, physician, and poet Judah Halevi.


Originally written in Arabic and prompted by Halevi's contact with a Spanish Karaite, the work was subsequently translated into Hebrew by Judah ibn Tibbon. It has since come to be regarded as one of the most important apologetic works of Jewish philosophy.


Divided into five parts, it takes the form of a dialogue between a rabbi and the king of the Khazars, who invited the former to instruct him in the tenets of Judaism, relative to the two Abrahamic religions: Christianity and Islam.


In the past century, the study of the Kuzari was encouraged by figures as diverse as Rav Kook, R. Yechezkel Sarna of Chevron and R. Shraga Feivel Mendelowitz of Torah Voda’ath. They each valued the Kuzari’s experiential approach over and against the rationalism of Maimonides.


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