(MaHaRa’L of Prague). Gur Aryeh [super-commentary to Rashi on the Pentateuch]

AUCTION 11 | Tuesday, November 28th, 2000 at 1:00
Important Hebrew Printed Books and Manuscripts From the Library of the London Beth Din

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Lot 83
LOEWE, JUDAH BEN BEZALEL.

(MaHaRa’L of Prague). Gur Aryeh [super-commentary to Rashi on the Pentateuch]

FIRST EDITION. Title within historiated woodcut border ff. 228. Browned and lightly stained in places, neat paper repairs to final leaf, ownership inscriptions on recto and verso of title, including a dedicatory Wedding inscription dated 1680. Modern morocco-backed boards. Folio Vinograd, Prague 39; Mehlman 654; not in Adams

Prague: Mordechai ben Gershom Katz 1578

Est: $2,500 - $3,000
PRICE REALIZED $6,500
The MaHaRa’L of Prague. The celebrated MaHaRa”L of Prague was one of the foremost original thinkers and interpreters of the major problems and subjects of Jewish thought. His works have gained a resurgence of popularity in the modern era, under the influence of Rabbis A. Y. Kook, E. E. Dessler and Y. Hutner. For a most comprehensive study of the MaHaRa”L see, A. Gottesdiener, Ha’avi Shebechachamei Prague in: Azkarah, Rabbi A. Y. Kook Festschrift, (1937) Part IV pp.253-443. <JIM- to go as a header prior to Lot 83.> The Gur Aryeh is one of the most extensive works on Rashi and the Mizrachi. Many of the MaHaRa’L’s lengthier expositions in his other works are contained in a more capsulated version in the Gur Aryeh. In his encyclopaedic work, Beith Ha’otzar (1938) Rabbi Joseph Engel of Cracow, one of the greatest scholars of the 20th century, constantly makes reference to the Gur Aryeh.