Babylonian Talmud – Munich 1949 – The Shas of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef from the Time he served as Rabbi in Egypt

Babylonian Talmud – Munich 1949 – The Shas of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef from the Time he served as Rabbi in Egypt
Babylonian Talmud – full set. Munich-Heidelberg, 1949. "Published by the Va'ad Agudat Rabbanim of the American region of Ashkenaz".
First full edition of the Talmud printed after the Holocaust, by the rabbis of the she'erit hapleita camps in Germany. Colorful title pages designed especially in commemoration of the printing of the Talmud on the burnt earth of Germany, with illustrations of a Jewish shtetl and of a labor camp surrounded by barb wire fences and inscriptions: "Labor camp in Ashkenaz during the time of the Nazis" and the verse "They have almost consumed us in the land and I have not forsaken your commandments".
Tractate Beitzah has two signatures of Rabbi "Ovadia Yosef". Some tractates have few glosses in his handwriting and additional glosses written by other writers. Inscriptions of the Chazon Ovadya Yeshiva.
According to the testimony of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's son the Rishon L'Zion Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef, Rabbi Ovadia studied from this Talmud when he served as Chief Rabbi of Egypt (1947-1950) and when he returned to Eretz Israel in 1951, he brought the Talmud with him and studied from this Talmud day and night.
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef (1920-2013) was born in Baghdad and at a young age immigrated with his parents to Jerusalem. From his youth, he was extraordinary in his amazing diligence and his astounding genius. He was exceedingly beloved by his teachers, Rabbi Ezra Attiya the head of the Porat Yosef Yeshiva and his other teachers. When still a young man, he began to write books and teach Torah to the public. According to his rabbis' instructions, he traveled to Egypt to serve in the rabbinate which he did with authority in spite of his being under the age of 30. This took place right before the establishment of the State of Israel and in the atmosphere prevalent at that time he suffered greatly from the suspicions of the Egyptian undercover police who followed him about and restricted his movements. (Once, when his eldest son, Rabbi Ya'akove was a two-year-old baby, he took books from his father's library and played with them on the veranda, tearing out pages and throwing them into the street. The police agents saw leaves with Hebrew writing being thrown from the house and suspected that they are espionage communications to the "Zionist enemy" and held the rabbi for investigation. When they entered the house, the police asked Rabbi Ovadia where he hid his arsenal, and he answered them pleasantly that his many books are his weapons and the inkwell with which he writes his religious writings are his arms).
When he returned to Eretz Israel in 1951, he served in the Petach Tikva rabbinate. He delivered sermons and discourses in Jerusalem and throughout Israel. At that time he also began publishing the first volumes of his series Chazon Ovadia and Yebia Omer. In 1958, he was appointed member of the Jerusalem Beit Din, and in Tishrei 1965, he was appointed member of the Rabbinical Great Beit Din alongside Rabbi Elyashiv and the elder rabbis of his generation. In 1969, he was appointed Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv-Jaffa and in 1977 Rishon L'Zion and Chief Rabbi of the State of Israel.
Eventually, he reached the status of one of the greatest Torah authorities of his generation and as an unparalleled influential spiritual leader. He was especially famous for his outstanding proficiency in Torah study and for his clear halachic decisions, but his authority and influence were not limited just to halachic issues but spread out over many varied areas pertinent to Jews in Israel and all over the world. Already, in the first years that he served as a young dayan, he was heavily involved in the life of his people and acted to improve their material and religious state and toiled to teach Torah to the masses and to raise the honor and esteem of Oriental Jews in Israel. Returning the "crown of Sephardic Jewry to its former glory" was one of his life's activities and was characterized both in the area of halachic decisions as well as in the area of society and politics. In the framework of this vision, he stood at the helm of Mo'etzet Chachmei HaTorah and navigated the Worldwide Sephardic Association of Torah movement.
Rabbi Ovadia left a tremendous literary yield, including his primary series of books: Yebia Omer responsa (10 volumes), Yechave Da'at responsa (six volumes), Chazon Ovadia (18 volumes) and many other books.
He died at the age of 93. Tens of thousands came to pay him their last respects and his funeral was claimed to have been the largest funeral in the history of the State of Israel.
19 volumes. 39 cm. Good-fair condition. Some volumes have torn or detached leaves. The illustrated title pages of two volumes are torn (some missing parts). One volume has many tears to the title pages and first leaves. Original bindings, damaged.
Enclosed is the authorization by Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's son, Rishon L'Zion and Chief Rabbi of Israel, testifying that his father brought this Talmud from Egypt and studied from it and also an authorization to sell the Talmud.