Auction 15
Lot 247:
Sefer Netivot Olam, Kitzur Semag, the list of the 613 commandments and their explanations by Rabbi Shmuel Galanti. Without a title page, apparently the Lemberg edition, 1807. 93, 63 leaves. 33 cm. In the book are several stamps “Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin…Volozhin” as well as of his son Rabbi Chaim Berlin. In the book is a handwritten gloss, which is most likely the handwriting of the Netziv. Without a title page, bound in a new binding, first and last leaves are restored with damage to text in the margins, moth damage and water stains. Good-fair overall condition. Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin (1817-1893), known as the Netziv of Volozhin, was one of the Roshei Yeshiva of the Volozhin yeshiva and one of the Torah giants of Eastern Europe in the 19th century. The Netziv was the firstborn of his father, Rabbi Yaakov, who was a merchant and Torah scholar in the city of Mir. He was educated in the Mir yeshiva until the age of 13 and a half, when Rabbi Yitzchak of Volozhin took him as a husband for his daughter. When his father-in-law died in 1849, his first son-in-law, Rabbi Eliezer Yitzchak became Rosh Yeshiva, and the Netziv served as his deputy. This son-in-law died at a young age, leading to the Netziv’s appointment as Rosh Yeshiva. His son, Rabbi Chaim Berlin, served as Chief Rabbi of Moscow, and for a short period as Rosh Yeshiva of Volozhin. In 1906 he immigrated to Jerusalem, and after Rabbi Shmuel Salant’s death was recognized as Rabbi of the Ashkenazi congregation of Jerusalem, despite refusing the officially accept the position.
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