(Bible. Hebrew. Exodus & Leviticus). Torath Hashem Temimah-Tikun Sopherim Ha’yeshorim. Prepared by Isaac Przemyslow of Prague and Edited by his son, Hirsch

(ANGLO JUDAICA)

Leib Sussmans

Amsterdam

1767

Two volumes only (of five). Each volume with attractive engraved additional title by Aaron Santcroos

Vinograd, Amsterdam 1940; Darlow & Moule 5158; JNUL copy incomplete

A REMARKABLE BEQUEST AMONG ENGLISH AND CONTINENTAL CHIEF RABBIS, A FACINATING LEGACY PASSED BETWEEN MEMBERS OF THE SCHIFF AND ADLER FAMILIES. Both volumes are stamped, inscribed and signed repeatedly. Provenance: 1. David Tevele Schiff (d.1792), Chief Rabbi of the Great Synagogue, London, from 1765 until his death. Upper covers with his name gilt-tooled in Hebrew characters and dated 1776. (From the elaborate praise and titles given him, he presumably received this Bible as a gift). 2. His son, Moses Schiff, who presented the volumes as Bar Mitzvah gift to: 3. His cousin, Baer ben Mordechai Adler, in 1799. This is perhaps when the original five volumes became separated. Adler writes of his receipt of the books in the Book of Exodus, which might suggest that he was not in possession of the earlier volume, Genesis. Adler became Chief Rabbi of Hanover and was succeeded by his son, Nathan Marcus in 1830. 4. Nathan Marcus Adler, was in turn elected Chief Rabbi of the British Empire in 1844. Thus, these two volumes came to return to England in the possession of its’ new Chief Rabbi. See: C. Duschinsky, The Rabbinate of the Great Synagogue (1921); and on Schiff pedigree, JE, XI, p. 97; and on Adler pedigree, EJ, II col. 270