Auction 54 Judaica - Books, Manuscripts, Rabbinical Letters, Ceremonial Art
Feb 7, 2017 (Your local time)
Israel
 8 Ramban St, Jerusalem.
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LOT 189:

Manuscript - Copy from the Circumcision Ledger of the Chatam Sofer

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Start price:
$ 750
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Manuscript with a list of the names of children circumcised by the Chatam Sofer during 1813-1839. [Bratislava], [ca. beginning of the 20th century].
This ledger is an abridged copy of the circumcision ledger of the Chatam Sofer and has a list of approximately 730 babies he circumcised in Pressburg (Bratislava). Recorded in this ledger are corresponding page numbers in the original ledger, the days of the week, the Hebrew dates, the names of the children and their fathers and the Hebrew letters Chet, Peh or Chet-Peh which denote the rites performed by the Chatam Sofer in each circumcision. If he performed the circumcision exclusively, he marked the entry with a Chet [initial for "Chatach" (cut)], if he only performed the pri'ah, he wrote a Peh, and if he performed both he wrote both letters.
The pages are titled: "Author of the Chatam Sofer - here in the Pressburg community, 1711" and stamped: "Bratislava sc.". The ledger was apparently copied by R. Avraham Greensfeld, the Pressburg "community scribe". On the last leaf of the ledger is his stamp: "Avraham Segal Greensfeld - scribe and trustee of the Pressburg community" [the Segal Greensfeld family was a family of rabbis and important public figures in the Pressburg community. The name of one of their offspring appear in this ledger: "The child Wolf Segal son of R. Avraham Greensfeld" (the 7th of Adar 1834)].
Among the names of the circumcised babies are also descendants and family members of the Chatam Sofer himself and leading Hungarian Torah scholars of the following generation: "My son Shmuel Binyamin, called Shmuel Wolf" [author of the Ktav Sofer]. 7th of Adar Bet 1815; "My son Shimon" [later became Rabbi of Krakow], "28 [days] from his birth" (11th of Shevat 1821); "My son Yosef called Yuspa", (23rd of Tamuz 1825). His grandsons: "Elyakim son of my son R. Avraham Shmuel Binyamin" (28th of Shevat 1834) [died in his childhood]; "My grandson Shlomo son of my son-in-law M. Eliyahu Kornitzer" (17th of Cheshvan 1835); "My grandson Akiva son of my son-in-law R. Yisrael Geiger" (the 7th of Elul 1838); "My grandson Shaul son of my son-in-law David Hirsh Ehrenfeld', (15th of Sivan 1839); "My grandson Akiva son of my son R. Shimon" (27th of Elul 1839). "Yisrael called Isserel son of my esteemed sister" (5th of Tishrei 1824); "Yisrael called Isseral son of R. Daniel Prostitz" [Ra'avad of Pressburg], (18th of Kislev 1818); "Chaim son of R. Fishel Sofer" [later, the Machane Chaim], (Yom Kippur 1821); "Akiva Yosef son of R. Yechiel son of R. Hirsh Ber" [R. Akiva Yosef Schlesinger, author of Lev HaIvri], (12th of Kislev 1837).
[52] pages. 34 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains and wear. Minor tears. New binding.

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