Auction 44
Lot 042:
The Kitzur Shulchan Aruch became an iron-clad asset in the treasury of Jewish books and is a book studied by boys and old men and women. Even during the author’s lifetime the book was printed in more than 10 editions, and dozens more were released before the world war. They were so heavily used that the public clambered for more to be printed (again and again). We have before us a very rare first edition of this foundational book, printed by the author himself with the approbation of Rabbi Menachem Esh. Stefanski Sifrei Yesod 207. Originally [4], 144 leaves. Leaves 90, 91, 101-104, 106, 107 are missing and filled in via professional facsimile. Light tears are repaired on a number of pages, light tears in the margins of some leaves, paper a little brittle, otherwise good condition. The Gaon Rabbi Shlomo Ganzfried (1804-1886) was the son of Rabbi Yosef, who was a dayan and motz in Ungvar. He was a student of Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Heller, the author of the well-known work “Tiv Gittin.” His first book, Kesset HaSofer on halachot ketivat stam, was published in Offen in 1834, and merited the endorsement of the Chatam Sofer, who wrote “one cannot give students smicha as sofrim until they are proficient in this book”, and he wrote notes to the book. He served as Ra’avad of Ungvar from 1850 until his death. He wrote dozens of important works, but he is most famous for his popular work the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, which has been published in dozens of editions since it was first released in Ungvar in 1864.
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