Sepher HaChinuch. First edition.Venice, Daniel Bomberg, 1523. * Torath HaChatath. Cracow, 1577. * Damesek Eliezer. Lublin, 1646. * And six others, similar

A collection of rare(albeit incomplete) early editions. The Damesek Eliezer is especially rare. Many copies of this work, which is one of the most thorough on Tractate Chulin, were destroyed in a conflagration that broke out in the printer’s shop. Most surviving copies were subsequently destroyed during the Chmielnicki Massacres of 1648-49. The dire condition of the Jews in Poland following the massacres prompted R. Eliezer to follow his father’s lead and migrate to the Land of Israel. This despite his earlier opposition to the settlement of the Land due to Halachic uncertainties relating to those precepts unique to Eretz Israel (see f.21r). However, he never reached his Promised Land and died in Belgrade while on route