Talmud Bavli, complete set, including the halachot of Rav Elfas (the Rif), “published by the Vaad Agudat HaRabbanim in the American Zone of Germany, with the support of the US army and the Joint Committee in Germany”. Munich-Heidelberg, 1948. Each volume has two title pages. The first title page is in yellow with inscriptions in red ink—designed especially to mark the printing of the Shas on German soil after the Shoah. At the top is an illustration of a Jewish village with the inscription “from slavery to redemption, from darkness to the great light”. At the bottom is an illustration of razor-wire fences and a work camp, above which is an inscription: “They had almost consumed me upon earth; but I forsook not Thy precepts.” The second title page is partially written in red ink.
Background: at the end of World War II, with the remnants of the Jewish communities of Europe gathered in DP camps, a lack of gemarot and other sifrei kodesh became obvious. Beginning in 1946, the Rabbinical Association of Germany, with the support of the American military and the Joint, embarked on a mission to print the Shas for the surviving Jews. At first lone masechtot were printed in a variety of formats. In 1948 this edition was published, the first complete Shas in Europe after the Shoah.
On the back of the title page, the publisher wrote an emotional introduction from which one can reach conclusions about the difficulties faced by the publishers to gather a complete set, as well as about the great joy that was their share in finishing the work: “Baruch Shehechyanu v’Kiyemanu v’Higiyanu Lazman HaZeh, printing the Shas…! After the horrible destruction, the lost days and devastation we experienced…the evil people who destroyed and burned the Jews of Europe and attempted to prevent any remnants of Hebrew text from surviving, and that the Jew be burned wrapped in his sefer torah…the risk of death was expected by any hiding a single book…over time we hoped to print Shas in its entirety but that required a great expenditure…so we approached the American military in Germany…and today we have good news for the Jewish people…in the name of Haredi Judaism we express our deep thanks to the American military, and the Joint for this.”
19 volumes in the original bindings, worn spines, lone defects in a number of places not damaging the text, a few missing bits of a few bindings, overall good condition.
