Manuscript, Passover Haggadah, with the Commentary of Rabbi Yechiel Michel Ber Oppenheim Av Beit Din of Friedberg ...

Manuscript, Passover Haggadah, with the Commentary of Rabbi Yechiel Michel Ber Oppenheim Av Beit Din of Friedberg and Offenbach – Unprinted Commentary – Written by Rabbi Ya'akov Neumburg, Author of Nachlat Ya'akov – Mainz, 1772
Manuscript, "Passover Haggadah, with the handwritten commentary of R' Michel Ber [Oppenheim] Av Beit Din of Friedberg and its provinces and Offenbach and its provinces", copied by Rabbi Ya'akov ben R' Baruch Neumberg “from the author's manuscript…while I was studying at the yeshiva of the famous Rabbi Teveli Sheyer in the Mainz community, 1772".
Manuscript on large leaves, written in an elegant, cursive Ashkenazic script, with square headings, written around pages (pasted to the leaves) from a printed Passover Haggadah published in Frankfurt am Main, 1749 (Ya'ari 130; Otzar HaHaggadot 204) – a rare edition today. The writer used two copies of this edition, separated their pages and pasted the leaves of the two copies so that each leaf of the Haggadah is pasted twice and all the pages can be seen. Surrounding the pages [the sizes of which are about one quarter of the handwritten pages] Rabbi Oppenheim handwrote his commentary. The columns are surrounded by lines in red ink.
The end of the commentary is styled in a geometric form with artistic ornaments at the base. On the last leaf is "Shihehat Haomer", omitted from a commentary on the words of Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya "I am a man of seventy years".
To the best of our knowledge, this is the only manuscript of this commentary on the Passover Haggadah and it has never been printed. A full comprehensive commentary, including a long detailed explanation of each phrase of the Haggadah. The author incorporates explanations with Aggadot Chazal, halachic pilpulim and Kabbalistic teachings. The work also has a broad commentary on the piyyutim at the end of the Haggadah.
On the title page is a handwritten dedication from 1801 by the writer – Rabbi Ya'akov Neumberg who gave the manuscript as a wedding gift to his disciple R' Yozel Wolf Speyer (Speyer's signature appears in the list of signatures of Offenbach rabbis on the book Minchat Yehuda, Furth 1801).
The author, Rabbi Yechiel Michel Ber Oppenheim (died 1750, Otzar HaRabbanim 9248), was born in Frankfurt, son of Rabbi Aharon Ber Oppenheim, an influential leader of the Frankfurt community. In 1701, he wed the daughter of the famous Rabbi David Oppenheim, Av Beit Din of Prague, and in honor of their wedding, his father printed the pamphlet Seder V'Hanhaga shel Nisu'im (customs of weddings) (Frankfurt 1701)j. He first served as Av Beit Din of Offenbach and afterward was elected as Av Beit Din of Friedberg, a position he held for over 40 years until his death. His Torah teachings were not printed with the exception of a small pamphlet of the laws of Chanuka which appears in Tractate Shabbat that was printed in his lifetime in Frankfurt in 1710. (The only copy of this pamphlet in the world was found in the library of his father-in-law and is kept today in the Bodleian Library in Oxford). His composition Mechal HaMayim, Aggada novellae on the Torah, also in manuscript form, is also preserved in his father-in-law's library at Oxford.
The writer, Rabbi Ya'akov ben R' Baruch Nuemberg of Mainz, first resided in Mainz and studied in the Beit Midrash of Rabbi Teveli Sheyer. At that time he wrote this manuscript [soon thereafter, in 1776, the Chatam Sofer studied in that same Beit Midrash and was a disciple of Rabbi Teveli Sheyer and of his son Rabbi Michel]. He later moved to Offenbach and wrote several compositions on Midrashim of Chazal. His works remained as manuscripts with the exception of his Nachalat Ya'akov commentary on Masechtot Ketanot which was first printed in Furth in 1793 and later in the Talmud editions bringing him fame as the primary commentator on Masechtot Ketanot.
[56] written pages. 36 cm. good condition. Stains. Contemporary binding, worn and partially detached, without spine.