Auction 47
Lot 148:
Siddur with a facsimile printing of the “Siddur from the Ari called Kol Yaakov” (also called Siddur Rabbi Kopil), used by tzaddikim, Admorim, and Kabbalists, facsimile of the Lemberg 1859 edition, printed in New York. Very pretty copy, with original binding and minor defects.
The title page has the handwritten signature of the kabbalist “Rabbi Yosef Woltuch of Jerusalem, Kislev 1963”. With signs of use and tears among the pages of the siddur, including kriyat shma al hamitah, Shofer blowing, Pesach Haggadah, wine stains in Shabbat kiddush, the tefillah Vayitene Lecha on Motzash, Hallel, candlelighting of Hanukkah, and more.
Rabbi Yosef Woltuch was a descendent of Rabbi Yehiel Michal of Zlotchow. In his youth he lived in the Old City of Jerusalem, and every day he would sneak into the Beit El kabbalistic yeshiva, study the ways of the kabbalists, and sleep very little. His minhag was to lay next to the graves of tzaddikim and he merited wonderful visions and sight of the souls of tzaddikim. However, he would take care not to go to Rashbi’s tomb on Lag B’Omer because of the numbers of people who went. It is said that during one of his prayers to bring about the Geulah he merited seeing Rachel Imenu wearing black clothes. Despite his suffering he worked for Hashem with happiness and excitement.
In Iyar 1983 he told a student that if Hashem willed it he would settle in Jerusalem and he went with two students to daven at the graves of tzaddikim in the Galilee. When he left Meron he told them that he didn’t feel well. They continued to the Idra cave to pray, and he told them again that he didn’t feel well. He asked for some soda water, so they repaired to Tzfat to buy him. When Rabbi Yosef finished the blessing over the soda, he fainted, was taken to the hospital in Tzfat, and passed away.
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