Auction 24
Lot 013:
Shot from Rabbi Yisrael Lifshitz, mainly dealing with the affair “The Get from Kleve” (see below). This is the only Hebrew book printed in Kleve, Germany. The copy includes pages 31-32, which were removed from most copies because responsa from Rabbi Aryeh Levin, the Av Beit Din of Hannover, and Rabbi Yitzhak of Hamburg were printed with strongly worded expressions against the sages of Frankfurt. Cuttings of paper are glued in with printed corrections, with erasures in some places where strong expressions were written (these erasures were probably done originally by the person who brought it to the publisher, who was the author’s son). 66, 69-120 pages. Printed on quality paper, moth marks, stains and wear and tear. Generally good condition. Old binding is coming apart, no spine. The background of this book and its printing is the “Get from Kleve” Affair. The Gaon Rabbi Yisrael Lifshitz, rabbi of Kleve, grandfather of the Tiferet Yisrael, organized a get for a couple from Bonn. The husband was a little mentally disturbed, fled from Germany to England in fear of death, and on his way divorced his wife in the city of Kleve, Germany. The sages of Frankfurt and Mannheim cancelled the get, claiming that the husband was not fit to divorce (“invalid get”), and published strongly worded notices against the rabbi of Kleve. But many greats of the generation: the Sha’agat Aryeh, Rabbi Yitzhak of Hamburg, Rabbi Shaul of Amsterdam, and his uncle Rabbi Yaakov Amdin, the Noda MiYehuda, and more, ruled according to Rav Lifshitz, and that the husband was considered a sane man able to divorce. The book mainly deals with this affair and related matters. In the introduction Rabbi Yisrael Lifshitz describes the war declared against him by those opposing the get, and mentions all of the actors who wished to approve the get and the various tchuvot on the matter. This is the only Hebrew book ever printed in Kleve, since the printers in Ashkenaz refused to print this book so as not to take a side in the affair.
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