Auction 48
Lot 218:
Barchi Nafshi “and 15 Shir HaMaalot of Rashi’s commentary, with the exegesis Beer Haim Mordechai, which I thanks to God wrote, Haim Mordechai Roller, Avdak of Nimitz.” Published during the author’s lifetime—Cluj, Kloisenburg printed by Weinstein et Friedman 1928. 116 pages,
bound with the first issue of the journal Otzer HaHayyim, published by Rav Haim Yehuda Ehrenreich, without cover and a few of the first pages—136 pages. According to what appears in the signature in the publisher’s introduction, it was printed in Devo in Tishrei of 1924, though the bibliography lists 1924/5 in Sa’ini.
Large moisture stains, light stains of other kinds, spine is coming apart, old binding, generally good condition.
Blank front page bears important stamp: “Baruch ben Mohari of Vizhnitz to Yafeh, Bilu St 16.” Back of the last page has a note: “Moshe Babad.”
Rabbi Baruch Hager of Seret-Vizhnitz (1895-1964) was the son of the Ahavat Yisrael of Vizhnitz. He was a member of the Council of Torah Sages, named the Mekor Baruch after his work on the Torah. He was a huge Talmid Chacham, and was certified for the rabbinate by greats of the period: Rabbi Meir Arik and Rabbi Avraham Menachem Mendel Steinberg. He first married the daughter of Rabbi Issachar Dov Rokeach (the Maharid of Belz), and served in the rabbinates of Poylen and Kutzman (cities), and in 1936 he was the first rabbi of Siret (Bokovina), where he established the Beit Yisrael v’Tamchin d’Oraita yeshiva and led it, until the Jews were expelled during the Shoah. He headed the Transnistria and Dzorin exiles, and dealt with public business and on behalf of the welfare of the oppressed and, later, the survivors. After the war he was in Antwerp, and despite the pleading of residents he refused to join the rabbinate there, saying the thing he most wanted was to move to Israel.
In 1947 his wish came true, and he moved to Israel, where he settled in Haifa. Being a visionary, our rabbi reasoned that he wanted to cause the spiritual wilderness that existed there to flower, so a few years later he established the Ramat Vizhnitz neighborhood in the foothills of the Carmel. He authored a number of works, including a comprehensive commentary on the Choshen Mishpat, but unfortunately most of those were lost during the time of the Shoah. He was buried next to his forefathers, Admorim of Vizhnitz, next to his father, the Ahavat Yisrael.
Rabbi Avraham Moshe Babad (1900-1980) was rabbi and chassidic rosh yeshiva in Bukovina and Israel, a student of the Gaon Rabbi Meir Arik of Tornov. He inherited his father’s position, and after WWII tried to immigrate to Israel but was sent to Cyprus in 1948 by the British, where he served as rabbi of the detention camp. After making it to Israel he was in constant contact with the Chazon Ish. Around 1952 he was appointed for a time as the Rosh Yeshiva of Yechel Yisrael of the Seret-Vizhnitz Chassidic community, led by his son-in-law Admor Rabbi Baruch Hager.
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