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LOT 99:
(SOVIET UNION).
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Sold for: $2,800
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(SOVIET UNION).
‘Sidur.’ Soviet-era Jewish prayer-book.
MANUSCRIPT, HEBREW TRANSLITERATED ENTIRELY INTO CYRILLIC. Written in black ink, featuring on occasion, blue, red and green.
ff. 137 (excluding blanks). Worn from use, few stains. Notebook with orange wrappers (Tashkent origin). 4to.
Bukharia: c. 1970
A REMARKABLE TESTAMENT TO THE STEADFAST COMMITMENT OF EVERYDAY SOVIET JEWS SEEKING TO PRACTICE THEIR FAITH.
Due to decades of religious persecution, many Jews who had grown up within the Soviet Union could not read Hebrew and knew very little about Jewish observance. Nonetheless, clandestine efforts to live religiously inspired lives persevered across the Soviet lands. The Jews of the Central Asian steppes felt no different, and it was in one of these communities (Tashkent? Samarkand? Buchara?) that this prayer-book was illicitly transcribed.
Boasting a table of contents of more than 40 entries, the prayer-book was composed with the intention that it serve every facet of the Jewish year, as well as the Jewish life-cycle. Indeed, it is possible that this single volume may have been the only such text at the disposition of multiple family units, thus mandating its wide range of content; from daily and Sabbath prayers to Kapparoth to Sheva Berachoth.
Especially dramatic is the fact that the Blessings for Circumcision/ Milah (p. 72) is a separate leaf, torn from the book. Folded and significantly more worn, it is evident that the page, more easily hidden than the entire volume WAS LIKELY USED IN CLANDESTINE OBSERVANCES OF BRITH MILAH DURING SOVIET TIMES.
With a supplemental image containing Sabbath morning Kiddush. Lacking from the present text, it was photographed from a similar “Samizdat” volume that contained the prayer.
No record of the writer or owner’s name appears in this volume, which of course is hardly surprising given its illicit nature under Soviet law. To be caught by the authorities in possession of this Jewish prayer-book would lead to untold legal entanglements and lengthy punishment.
AN IMPORTANT LEGACY OF 20TH CENTURY JEWISH RELIGIOUS HEROISM.
