Notebook of Yeshiva Student.

Auction 98 | Thursday, June 16th, 2022 at 1:00pm
Fine Judaica: Rare Printed Books, Manuscripts, & Autograph Letters

Back to Catalogue

Lot 27
(PRESSBURG).

Notebook of Yeshiva Student.

Anonymous Manuscript in Hebrew, Yiddish and German. ff. 20 (excluding blanks). Browned. Modern boards. 4to.

Hungary (likely Slovakia today): 1928-29

Est: $300 - $400
PRICE REALIZED $225
The Yeshiva notes of a young boy likely around Bar Mitzvah age. <<A valuable insight to the educational realities in the realm dominated by the Chasam Sofer’s students.>> All rabbis mentioned here were active in towns only a few dozen miles from Pressburg, the epicenter of the Chasam Sofer’s influence. The 40-odd pages of notes include: <<*>> Summary of <<unpublished>> sermon heard directly from R. Shmuel David Halevi Ungar (Rosh Yeshiva of Nitra, 1885-1945). 1 ff. <<*>> Transcript of Eulogy delivered for R. Yisrael ‘HaRo’eh’ Shor of Subatisht (Sobotište, d. 1929) by the student’s uncle. 4.5 ff. <<*>> Sermon on Parshath Beha’alothcha delivered by the student at a meeting of the local Tze’irei Agudath Israel chapter. 7 ff. <<*>> Notes on a beginner’s Talmudic Sugya (Kiddushin 36a). 2 ff. <<*>> Torah thoughts (likely school notes, alternating pen indicates a new session of the class). 3 ff. <<*>> Essay in German. 1 ff. <<*>> Hebrew grammar lesson. 1 ff. Thus, the young boy raised in the Soferian mold displays a clear penchant for Talmudic study, respect of rabbinic authority and a desire to make his own contributions to the world of Torah. While he also received a systematic education in Dikduk, as well as rudimentary writing skills in German, the ratio of such content speaks volumes as to the weltanschauung of the Pressburgian educational system.