Manuscript - HaDevarim HaShemurim - Original Historical Work Regarding the Jews During the Polish "November ...

Manuscript - HaDevarim HaShemurim - Original Historical Work Regarding the Jews During the Polish "November Uprising" of 1830-1831 - Poland, ca. 1841
Manuscript, "Sefer HaDevarim HaShemurim" - memoirs of R. Yaakov HaLevi Levin on the events of the Polish uprising in 1830-1831, including an account of the imprisonment and release of his brother-in-law, the wealthy R. Shlomo Zalman Posner. [Poland, ca. 1841].
Neat, cursive Ashkenazic script. Text set within double-line frames, sometimes dividing between passages.
A complete composition written in poetic language, containing a first-hand account of the events, narrated by R. Yaakov HaLevi Levin of Płońsk. The title is surrounded by numerous verses, with calculations of their numerical values.
This composition documents the events of the Polish uprising against the Russian empire in 1830-1831 (also known as the November Uprising or the Cadet Revolution), and the imprisonment of R. Shlomo Zalman Posner, prominent wealthy Polish Jew who expended great effort to improve the state of his Jewish brethren. Posner was admired in the higher echelons of the Polish government and the court of the Russian Czar, and contributed greatly to the economic development of Poland. He provided livelihood for hundreds of Jews who worked under him in his textile factory, which supplied fabric to the Polish army. With the outbreak of the uprising, Posner was targeted by the Poles who resented him for his wealth, status, and Jewishness. He was accused of cooperation with the Russians, and of handing over information about the moves of the Polish insurgents. His factory and home were attacked, and he was arrested together with several family members. They were brought to Warsaw for trial, only narrowly escaping death penalty, following much lobbying from various parties.
This composition is a portrayal of the events of the uprising, the part played by the Jews in it and how it affected them. The account is centered around the incarceration of Posner, and is written by a first-hand witness - R. Yaakov HaLevi Levin of Płońsk, brother-in-law of Posner, who was also arrested and taken to Warsaw.
The publisher's blurb on the dustjacket of the book HaYehudim VehaMered HaPolani (Bialik Institute, 1953, based on a different manuscript, see below) notes regarding this work: "…this book of memoirs is in effect the only extant Jewish documentation of the events of that time, from a first-hand witness. The uniqueness of the book lies in the way it sheds a different light on the tribulations of the Jews during the Polish uprising, contrary to the praise and acclaim accorded by the previous generation to the Polish-Jewish relations during the uprising… an approach which was fabricated by assimilated Jews who wished to prove that Jew-hatred was foreign to these revolutionary movements. In this respect, the book serves as an important source regarding the history of Polish Jewry in that period".
[1], 21 leaves. Approx. 20 cm. Good-fair condition. Worming. Signature and stamps ("Shmuel Tzvi son of R. A. Weltzman - Kalisz"; "Moshe Yehuda Hellmann"). Early binding, with leather spine, damaged.
There is a different, longer version of this work, comprising sixty chapters, which the historian Nathan Michael Gelber (1891-1966) published based on a photocopy of a different manuscript (Główna Biblioteka Judaistyczna, Warsaw, MS 9249/16048) in the book HaYehudim VehaMered HaPolani (Bialik Institute, Jerusalem, 1953), with the addition of a comprehensive preface discussing the events of that time and the composition.
In his foreword, Gelber mentions two other versions, which are not extant today. One is a manuscript (of thirty chapters) owned by Yissachar Schwartz of Zgierz, passages of which were published by R. Yitzchak Nissenbaum in an article about R. Shlomo Zalman Posner, in the HaMizrachi weekly, 1920 (issues 14-16). The second is a manuscript owned by R. Tzvi Yechezkel Michelsohn, who quotes a passage of it in his work Tzemach HaSadeh (at the end of the book Tzemach LeAvraham, Warsaw 1935). The whereabouts of these manuscripts, as well as those of the Warsaw manuscript, are not known today, and they may have been lost in the Holocaust.
Comparison of quotes from the three sources discloses that there are differences between them, both in the style of writing and information they provide. One can conjecture that these are various arrangements of the same work, all produced by the author himself.
The present manuscript is a fourth version, different to the other three. This version is comprised of 24 chapters, and is prefaced by a long introduction. The handwriting is identical to that of the Warsaw manuscript on which Gelber based his book (by comparison with the image at the beginning of his book). This may be the author's handwriting.
Enclosed: Copy of the book HaYehudim VehaMered HaPolani, Jerusalem, 1953.