(GAON OF VILNA).

Vilna and Slonim

(Early19th-century)

(Pinkas Beth HaGr”a). Manuscript on paper. 44 leaves. Various Ashkenazic cursive hands, including R. Abraham, the son of the Elijah, Gaon of Vilna, and R. Yaakov Moshe of Slonim, the Gaon’s grandson. On portions of the Bible, Talmud, Shulchan Aruch and various topics

IMPORTANT MANUSCRIPT CONTAINING COMMENTARIES FROM THE VILNA GAON AND HIS FAMILY. MOSTLY UNPUBLISHED See D. Kaminetsky, Kethav Yad Kadsho shel Rabeinu Ha-Gr”a in: Yeshurun, Vol. XVI (2005) pp. 737-738 n. 41. Contains the following: ff. 1a-2b: Commentary on Shir Ha-Shirim (unidentified handwriting). f.3a: Commentary on Shir Ha-Shirim (in the hand of R. Abraham, the son of the Gaon). ff. 3b-5b: Topics arranged in alphabetical order (in the hand of R. Abraham, the son of the Gaon). ff. 6a-7b: Comments on Books of Samuel and Kings (in the hand of R. Abraham, the son of the Gaon) citing novellae heard from his father. ff. 8a-b: Copy of marginalia of R. Abraham on Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim (in the hand of a grandson of R. Abraham, possibly R. Elazar Landau, the son of R. Yaakov Moshe who published Tirgeim Abraham by his grandfather, the same hand as f. 11b, heading in the hand of R. Yaakov Moshe). ff. 9a-11a: Commentary on the Morning Prayers (in the hand of R. Abraham, the son of the Gaon). ff. 11b-12a: Marginalia of R. Abraham on Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim (in the hand of a grandson of R. Abraham, possibly R. Elazar Landau). f. 13a: General rules of grammar (unidentified handwriting). ff. 14a-27b: Comments and novellae on the Bible, Talmud Bavli, Yerushalmi, Shulchan Aruch, etc. (in the hand of R. Yaakov Moshe with many citations in the name of his grandfather, the Gaon. f. 28a: Commentary on Mizmor Le-Todah (in the hand of R. Abraham) f. 28b: Comments on various verses plus a poetic elegy. ff. 29a-b: A halachic query in the hand of R. Yaakov Moshe. ff. 30a-31b: Introduction to Biur Ha-Gr"a to Zohar (in the hand of R. Yaakov Moshe). Contains addtional material than the published version (see Kaminetsky in Yeshurun, Vol. 16, Elul, 2005, pp. 737-745) ff. 31b-42a: Various comments on the Bible, Aggadoth, Mishnah, Rash"i on the Torah, Maimonides, etc. (in the hand of R. Yaakov Moshe). f. 42a: Historical information pertaining to a 12th-century liturgical manuscript belonging to Ephraim Zalman Margalioth and a transcription of the tombstone of the Gaon’s maternal grandfather, dated 1734 in Seltz and R. Yaakov Moshe’s aprobation to the work Dikdukei Eliahu, Vilna, 1833. f. 42b: Comments on Tana Devei Eliahu (in the hand of R. Yaakov Moshe). f.43a-b: Sermon “on the body and the soul” (in the hand of R. Yaakov Moshe). f.44a : Comments on Koheleth (in the hand of R. Yaakov Moshe)