Chaim Tchernowitz. Sha’ar HaTephilah [discourses on prayer]

(CHASSIDISM)

E. Bilitz & T.Z. Rubinstein

Mohilev (i.e. Sudylkow)

1824

FIRST EDITION . Printed on green tinted paper. Previous owner’s signature, a resident of the Chassidic town of Nadvirna, Ukraine.

Vinograd, Sudylkow 94

The author is most famous for his magnum opus, Be’er Mayim Chayim on the Chumash, a classic of Chassidic thought to this day. Sha’ar HaTephilah is graced by the Haskamah of R. Ephraim of Sudylkow, grandson of R. Israel Ba’al Shem Tov, founder of the modern Chassidic movement, and by R. Mordechai of Kremnitz, an early Chassidic Master. The present copy contains the well-known responsum (ff. 3-10, bound here before the last leaf), wherein the author debates the earlier opinion of R. Ezekiel Landau of Prague (Noda B’Yehudah, Sec. Yoreh De’ah, no. 93) concerning reciting the kabbalistic formula “LeShem Yichud” and the degree, or form, of intentionality required by law in prayer. This responsum is lacking in many copies (including the copy consulted by Vinograd).