Bidspirit auction | VOLOZHINER, CHAIM.  Nephesh HaChaim. FIRST

VOLOZHINER, CHAIM.  Nephesh HaChaim. FIRST EDITION. With an introduction by Rabbi Chaim’s son and successor, R. Itzele of Volozhin .  A fine, wide-margined copy. ff. (63). Lightly stained, with signatures including: R. Yehoshua b. HaRav Gershon Shapira. Modern full calf over thick boards. 4to. Vinograd, Vilna 183. Vilna & Grodno, Partners Mann & Zimmel, 1824. First appearance of the key philosophical text underlying Lithuanian Jewry. R. Chaim Volozhin (1749-1821), the principle disciple of the Vilna Gaon, was the widely acknowledged leader of the Mithnagdic Movement following the establishment of his Yeshiva in Volozhin in 1802. R. Chaim’s writings have become deeply influential among the elite, Lithuanian Yeshiva circle of scholars. Based on complex interpretations of the Zohar and related Kabbalistic texts, the Nefesh HaChaim is the most fundamental tract to outline the Hashkafic weltanschauung of Lithuanian Jewry and its Yeshiva / study-centric approach to Judaism. Containing an in-depth study of Man and his purpose in this world, alongside his relationship with God and Torah, Nefesh HaChaim was composed in part, as a response to the approach recently promolgated by R. Schneur Zalman of Liadi in his Sepher Tanya (first ed. 1796). While the Chassidic movement advocated prayer and emotional worship as partners to Torah scholarship in the service of God, R. Chaim Volozhin lays out a system here wherein Torah learning reigns supreme over all other forms of service, with no other act coming even close to its level of importance. “The Brisker Rav described Nefesh Hachaim as The Shulchan Aruch of Jewish philosophy and faith. It swiftly gained repute as the fundamental source of Hashkafa in the yeshiva world” (Stefansky, Sifrei Yesod).