Rare Printed Books,
Manuscripts, Autograph Letters,
Photographs, Graphic & Ceremonial Arts
And Featuring: A Significant Offering Relating to Jews in the American Civil War.
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LOT 43:
(RABBI'S HANDBOOK).
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Sold for: $100
Start price:
$
100
Estimated price :
$300 - $500
Buyer's Premium: 25%
sales tax: 8.875% On the full lot's price and commission
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(RABBI'S HANDBOOK). MANUSCRIPT written in Hebrew and German. A pencil inscription on the inner cover reads: “Moshe Politcher 8 Elul 5649 (4 September 1889).” Lists of names.
pp. 28. Previous owner’s embossed stamp, dampstained. Loose in original boards, broken. 8vo.
c. 1889-91
A manuscript prepared by a performer of weddings, funerals, and circumcisions. Such clergymen were often called a Kol Bo, or “All-In-One, ” as such rabbis occupied a particular niche, in America especially. Many were not ordained rabbis at all, however lack of uniform standards and without the formal rabbinic position as existed in Europe, anyone who could pass as knowledgeable, had only to advertise his services. Many of these ‘Jewish-ceremony-performers’ skirted the issue of how ‘rabbinic’ they actually were, by using the title ‘Reverend.’
The compiler of this volume appears to have been on the more knowledgeable part of the spectrum, as careful attention is paid by him to the details of Jewish law. Moreover, it is written in a variety of florid and attractive scripts, as one familiar with writing Hebrew.
The book begins with a generic text of a ketubah for use in a Jewish weddings, both the Aramaic and a German translation, according to the text that appears in Sepher Kerem Shlomo (Pressburg, 1846) by Rabbi Shlomo Haas of Dreznitz.
Following this are 13 Dinim, laws of the marriage ceremony. Interestingly, this text is not taken from another code, but appears to be the summary of the necessary laws by the author himself.
The next section are the prayers and blessings recited in the wedding ceremony. This is written in a fine Hebrew hand similar to that used in Torah scrolls, but pointed, for ease of reading. After this is the Birkhat HaMazon used at the end of the wedding feast.
Following which is a section for death and funeral rites.
Coming full circle, the final section resumes with the cycle of life, the prayers and blessings at a Circumcision, and the Pidyon Haben redemption ceremony for firstborn sons.
Sale-room Notice: It is possible the ms is NOT of American origin.
