Bidspirit auction | (DEINARD, EPHRAIM). DAVID, MAGGID OF

(DEINARD, EPHRAIM). DAVID, MAGGID OF MAKOW.  Zemir Aritzim [anti-Chassidic tract]. Edited with additional historical treatment by Ephraim Deinard. Additional title-page in English. Printed on multi-colored papers. pp. xxviii; 76, (2). Contemporary marbled boards, rebacked. Tall 16mo. Singerman 5539; Deinard, Atikoth Yehudah p. 20. Newark, New Jersey, Ben-Zion Nathanzohn, 1899. The unusual typography of this edition is described as follows: “Mr. Deinard, who is not only a Hebrew author of eminence, but also a collector, has thought fit to publish this little book of seventy-six pages in an extraordinary shape, about two inches wide by eight inches long, on leaves of the following colours: blue, brown, green, pink, yellow and vermilion orange, only two pages being white!” (See E.N. Adler, About Hebrew Manuscripts (1970) p.125). The work itself contains a wealth of detail relating to Chassidic life-style. Yet due to its severe tone in disparaging the Baal Shem Tov and other Chassidic leaders, most all copies of this polemic were purchased by Chassidim in order to destroy it and so remove from public view its perceived heresy. The author, was a central figure in the historical controversy between the disciples of Chassidism and their opponents. Steeped in Chassidic life as a young man, R. David of Makov became attracted to the philosophic outlook of the Vilna Gaon and assiduously adopted the Gaon’s fervent opposition to Chassidism. The present edition with an introduction by Ephraim Deinard contains the usual Deinardian mix of vitriolic venom coupled with important biblio-historical information. For the first edition of Zemir Aritzim (1772), see Kestenbaum Sale 73, lot 81.