(SASREGEN).
(Talmud, Babylonia). Masechta Yoma, Shekalim, Megillah, Moed Katan & Chagigah. Bound in ...

(SASREGEN).
(Talmud, Babylonia). Masechta Yoma, Shekalim, Megillah, Moed Katan & Chagigah. Bound in one volume. Vilna, Romm, 1897.


With dramatic Hebrew inscriptions: “I learned from this Gemara while performing forced military labor on the railroad near Deda… Here in Sasregen, Yitzchak Menachem Lanskner of Satmar-Zemeti. 28th Shvat, 1942” Also with the stamp of Grand-Rebbe Ya’akov Yisrael VeYeshurun Rubin of Sulitza (Sulita) and Sasregen (1884-1944). The Rebbe’s son, R. Mordechai Dovid Rubin, headed K’hal Sasregen, Brooklyn, until his passing in 2020. Other markings and inscriptions include stamp of Tzvi Hirsch Lanskner and signature of Yehoshua Weiss Segal. Manuscript novellae to the first two folios of Megillah.
Heavily worn by the travails of the 20th century. Folio.



The Nazi-allied Hungarian regime drafted tens of thousands of Jews into forced labor battalions between 1941 and 1944. In brutal conditions, conscripts worked in mines, built railroads and engaged in other forms of heavy labor. Subjected to impossible to meet quotas, insufficient rations, exposure to the elements and the sadistic abuse of their oppressors, a great many conscripts did not survive.

One can only imagine the Mesiruth Nefesh of one such young draftee, Yitzchak Menachem Lanskner, who by happened upon the Sasregen Beth Medrash while based in a work camp 15 miles away. Availing himself of the opportunity, he spent what little energy he had, poring over the familiar, comforting pages of the Gemara. Not knowing whether he would live to see the end of the war, Lanskner recorded his name for posterity.

THIS VOLUME IS A TESTAMENT TO A MOST PASSIONATE FORM OF RESISTANCE TO THE NAZIS: THE CONTINUATION OF TORAH LEARNING ABOVE ALL ELSE.

Sasregen (Reghin/ Szaszregen) is a Transylvanian town that was host to the famed R. Hillel Pollak (1810-93) who led the community for 27 years in the spirit of his mentor, the Chasam Sofer.