(MANUSCRIPTS)

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Collection of five Hebrew manuscripripts Vital, Chaim. Etz Chaim [“Tree of Life”: Kabbalah]. With Introductions of R. Meir Popers and R. Jacob Tzemach. Eighteenth century Aschkenazic script of great clarity. Stamps of “Beth ha-Midrash Menachem Tzion in the Churvah of R. Judah he-Chasid in the holy city of Jerusalem.” (See below.) ff. (5), 6-284. First leaf missing some text. Brown ink on stiff paper. Modern boards. Folio. * Three Megiloth: Song of Songs, Ruth and Ecclesiastes. With Targum, Rash”i and grammatical notes of R. Yachya Tzalach (Mahari”tz). Title within floriated surround executed in red, ochre and black inks. Text and Targum with nikud (vowel points). Text in square Yemenite letters; Targum and Rash”i in Rashi script. Headers and initials accentuated with red ink. ff. (55). Black ink on stiff paper. Modern vellum-backed boards. 4to. * Anonymous. Companion guide to Books of Joshua, Samuel, Kings. References to rabbinic sources and Zohar. Modern Aschkenazic script. (Russia, Nineteenth Century?) Double columns. ff. (55), (1 blank), (263). Modern boards. 4to. * Shapiro, Abraham, of Minsk. Be'er Abraham [“Well of Abraham”: Commentary to Pentateuch]. Portions of Numbers and of Deuteronomy. Unpublished manuscript. 3 Vols. Aschkenazic script. (Russia, Nineteenth Century?) Vol. I (Beha'alothecha-Chukath): ff.43, (1 blank), 15, 19. Vol. II (Balak-Pinchas): ff. 19, (1 blank), 45. Vol. III (Shoftim-Teitze): ff.61. Brown ink on ruled paper. Modern boards. Wide 4to. * Blank Kethubah forms (1740-1840). Eulogy in French by anonymous rabbi

(Regarding the first manuscript): For many years the Aschkenazic synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem, founded by R. Judah he-Chasid of Shedlitz, Poland and his coterie at the turn of the eighteenth century, lay in ruins, hence the name “Churvath R. Judah he-Chasid” [The Ruin of R. Judah he-Chasid] or simply “The Churvah Synagogue.” Because of the debts left by these early Aschkenazic settlers, the Turkish authorities would not permit the rebuilding of the synagogue. Many attempts in this direction met with failure. Finally, after R. Abraham Solomon Zalman Zoref, a disciple of R. Chaim of Volozhin, travelled to Egypt and there received the diplomatic assistance of the Austrian and Russian consuls, permission was granted, and in 1837, the new beth ha-midrash “Menachem Tzion” was inaugurated. See Frumkin and Rivlin, Toldoth Chachmei Yerushalayim, Part III (1929), pp. 156, 177; JE, Vol. VII, p. 139