Mendelovitz, Shneur Zalman. Avodath Hashem [commentary to Bereishith]. Published on the occasion of the Author’s 80th birthday. Final leaf consists of a poem composed by the Author at the tomb of Ezekiel the Prophet in Baghdad.

(ISRAEL, LAND OF).

Elchanan Tannenbaum

Jerusalem

1884

FIRST EDITION. On verso of title and f. 4r., vignette of the Western Wall. On f. 4v. vignette of Chabad synagogue in Old City of Jerusalem with caption reading in Hebrew and English: "This Synagogue was built by Messrs. Dawid Sassoon & Sons in Jerusalem the Holy Land." On title, stamp of "Raphael David Kaski, Sh[ochet] u-b[odek] (ritual slaughterer), Beirut".

Halevi, Jerusalem 408.

The work testifies to the founding of the Chabad Synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem. It includes an account of the author’s travels on behalf of the Chabad Community of both Jerusalem and Hebron, noting visits among the aristocratic Jewish denizens of Europe as well as the Far East, such as the philanthropists David Sassoon, his sons Abdallah (Albert) and Elias David, Bombay (in whose home Mendlowitz resided for two years); Solomon and his wife Farha (Flora), Bombay; Sir Moses Montefiore and Joseph Sassoon, London; Baron Shimon Wolf de Rothschild, Frankfurt a/Main; Frej (Frederick) Chaim Sassoon, Hong Kong; Azori (Edward) Sassoon, Shanghai, etc. According to an account here, Mendelowitz even received an audience from Queen Victoria of Great Britain. Included are also haskamoth by the two Sephardic Rabbis of Jerusalem, Raphael Meir Panigel and Jacob Saul Elyashar, Rabbis Yehoshua Leib Diskin (Brisk-Jerusalem), R. Eliyahu Mani (Hebron), R. Shimon Menashe Chaikin (Chabad-Hebron), R. Rachamim Joseph Franco (Sephardim-Hebron) and R. Raphael Aaron Ben Shimon (Jerusalem-later Cairo).