Chidushim U’Pilpulim [Talmudic novellea]

KATZKA (CHARIF), ISAAC BEN ABRAHAM.

Poland

19th century

Manuscript in Hebrew, written in a cursive Aschkenazic hand on paper. With stamps of the author’s grandson, Chanoch Kaczka.

AUTOGRAPH(?) UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT Novellae on sections of Nashim and Nezikin which include topics in Tractates Kesuvoth, Gittin, Kiddushin, Bava Kama and Bava Metzia. This work is important for those tractates especially focused upon in yeshivoth, and for those that follow the Polish pilpulistic method of study. R. Yitzchak Kaczka (d. 1843) known as “Yitzhakal Charif,” served as Head of the Rabbinical Court in Piotrkow, and headed a Yeshiva which produced many leading rabbis in Galicia. The Yid HaKodosh of Peshis’cha highly praised R. Yitzchok, calling him his personal “bookcase” due to the vast and encyclopedic knowledge incorporated by the author. An attempt to publish this manuscript was made in 1940 (entitled Minchath RIV”A), however only a very small portion of 20 leaves was printed.