Semichah LeChaim [responsa]

PALAGGI, CHAIM.

Orphans of Bezalel Halevi

Salonika

1826

FIRST EDITION. THE RABBI YAAKOV YITZCHAK RUDERMAN COPY, with his signature and stamp on opening blank, plus bookplate of R. Yaakov S. Weinberg. Presentation copy from the author with gilt-embossed stamp on front cover. Opening blank with an inscription in an Ashkenazic hand to R. Meir Leibish Malbim, Rabbi of Bucharest from “Hagevir Si[r] Hillel”. Printer’s mark on first leaf and at end of introduction showing a mounted crown flanked by two cherubs and foliage.

Vinograd, Salonika 684.

This is an interesting association copy: The author, Chaim Palaggi, was one of the most prolific Rabbinical authors with close to seventy works to his credit. One of his primary benefactors, whose name appears on the title page of many of his works, was the owner of this particular volume, Elazar Hillel bechor Manoach - R. Chaim Palaggi had this book bound for him especially. Later it was presented (apparently by an emissary of Elazar Hillel) to the Malbim who was Rabbi of Bucharest. See I. I. Chasida, R. Chaim Palaggi U’Sepharav (1968) no. 4.