Toldot Yaakov Yosef – Medzhybizh, 1817 – Second Edition – Two Variants

Toldot Yaakov Yosef – Medzhybizh, 1817 – Second Edition – Two Variants
Two copies of Toldot Yaakov Yosef, Chassidic composition on the Torah, by R. Yaakov Yosef HaKohen of Polonne. Medzhybizh, [1817]. Second edition. Approbation of the rabbi of Medzhybizh, R. Avraham Yehoshua Heshel of Apta, dated Sivan 1816.
Two variant copies, with slightly different title pages. On the title page of one copy, the place of printing is printed in large letters: "In Medzhybizh", and the letters emphasized in the chronogram indicate the year 1817. In the second copy, the words "In Medzhybizh" were omitted and the letters emphasized in the chronogram indicate the year 1780.
An early signature on the title page of the second copy: " Moshe Yehuda Leib Epstein".
Toldot Yaakov Yosef, the first Chassidic book to be printed, was authored by the kabbalist R. Yaakov Yosef HaKohen of Polonne (d. Tishrei 1781 – Chassidic lore records his birth in the 1660s, ascribing him a life of close to 120 years), a leading and close disciple of the Baal Shem Tov and the first to disseminate Chassidut. This book is the most important and authentic source of the Baal Shem Tov's teachings, containing over 280 references to teachings the author personally heard from the Baal Shem Tov, emphasized throughout the book and beginning with the words "I heard from my master".
This book was especially cherished by Chassidic leaders, who ascribed it great holiness. The Maggid of Mezeritch commended the author as having merited revelation of Eliyahu and reached lofty heights. R. Pinchas of Korets attested that a book of such stature has never yet existed, and its teachings originate from Heaven. He would customarily say that all new books do not totally conform with the truth, except for the books of the rabbi of Polonne which are "teachings from Paradise", and that with each quotation "heard from my master" one can resurrect the dead. The Saba of Shpoli would recommend putting this book under the head of an ill person as a segulah (LaYesharim Tehilla).
When R. Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk immigrated to Eretz Israel, he met R. Pinchas of Korets who queried "Why did the rabbi from Polonne print one thousand books at the price of one gold coin per book; had he printed a single book, I would have paid for it a thousand gold coins…".
Two copies. [1], 3, 5-89, 59 leaves. Greenish paper. First copy: Approx. 33 cm. Overall good condition. Stains. Wear to first leaves. Worming. Minor marginal tears to title page and to several other leaves (some repaired with paper). Stamps. New binding. Second copy: 32 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains and wear. Worming to some leaves, with minor damages to text. Large tear to leaf 56 of the first sequence, affecting text (old paper repair). Marginal tears to last leaves, slightly affecting text (repaired). Stamps and handwritten inscriptions. New leather binding.
Stefansky Chassidut, no. 606.
The year 1780 indicated in the second copy seems to be the origin of a folktale that an edition of the book was printed in Medzhybizh in 1780, which was entirely burned by the Mitnagdim (opponents of Chassidut). In fact, the book was first printed in Korets in 1780, while the second edition was printed in Medzhybizh in 1817, with two variant title pages, one indicating the year 1780 like in the first (Korets) edition. See: Meir Wunder, "The First Decade of Chassidic Book Printing", Tagim – Review of Jewish Bibliography, I, 1969, pp. 34-35; essay by Yitzchak Yudlov, Areshet, 6, p. 110.