Hebrew Manuscript on paper, written in a clear Ashkenazic script.

(GER TZEDEK).

n.p

1805

An early account of Count Valentine Potocki, later to be known as Avraham ben Avraham, a Polish nobleman who converted to Judaism. The Count, who lived in the time of the Vilna Gaon, met his end when he was burnt at the stake on the second day of Shavuoth, 1749. His ashes were subsequently gathered and buried in the Jewish cemetery of Vilna. Over subsequent decades, an unusually large tree grew over his grave and drew vast pilgrimages of Jews, until it was demolished by Polish vandals. This manuscript is an early version of the celebrated story, which, over many years, served as a theme for a number of novels and plays. It was first published in 1841 by the Polish writer J. Krazewski and became more widely known when the writer I. M. Dick published it in Yiddish and Hebrew. See YIVO-Bletter Vol. I (1931) pp.331-33; JE vol. X, p. 147; EJ Vol. XIII, col. 934-35.