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Bidding Information
Lot #    12962
Auction End Date    1/24/2006 10:42:02 AM (mm/dd/yyyy)
          
Title Information
Title (English)    Beit ha-Levi
Title (Hebrew)    בית הלוי
Author    [First Ed.] R. Joseph Baer Soloveichik
City    Warsaw
Publisher    Isaac Goldman
Publication Date    1884
          
Collection Information
Independent Item    This listing is an independent item not part of any collection
          
Description Information
Physical
Description		    First edition. 64; 76 pp., 227:175 mm., wide margins, usual age staining. A very good copy bound in later boards.
          
Detailed
Description		    R. Joseph Baer Soloveichik of Volozhin (1820–1892), talmudist and rosh yeshivah. R. Soloveichik was educated by his father, R. Isaac Ze'ev Soloveichik of Kovno, and his great-uncle, R. Isaac, son of R. Hayyim of Volozhin. While in Volozhin, he married into a wealthy family, but was shortly thereafter forced by his fatherin-law to divorce his wife when he failed to give the correct order of the recitation of some minor prayers on a festival. This so embittered him that he left Volozhin and subsequently studied under R. S. Kluger in Brody and R. J. N. Orenstein in Lemberg. His reputation spread, and he was appointed successor to R. Gershon Menahem of Minsk at the yeshivah there. He finally returned to Volozhin in 1849 to serve as joint rosh yeshivah with R. Naphtali Zevi Judah Berlin (the "Neziv"), the son-in-law of R. Isaac of Volozhin. With the passage of time, the two found it increasingly difficult to agree. It was impossible for them to work in harmony, particularly since both exercised considerable spiritual influence on the students. Their differences caused such a complete break between them that they could not act jointly in the administration of the school or in the planning of the curriculum. They were different in their temperaments and in their approach, to talmudic studies. R. Berlin was patient and temperate, modest and sober in his ways, preferring erudition to subtlety, while R. Soloveichik was a dynamic personality, sharp-witted, preferring acumen to erudition in talmudic studies and in wordly matters. R. Soloveichik respected no person in argument and deferred to no one. They presented their dispute before four outstanding scholars, who decided in favor of R. Berlin. R. Soloveichik left Volozhin and became rabbi of Slutsk. He later restored harmony in his relations with R. Berlin when his son, R. Hayyim, married R. Berlin's granddaughter. In Slutsk he found scope for his energies, both in Torah teaching and in communal organization. He deployed his abilities and his industry for the community's needs, devoting himself wholeheartedly to helping the poor and the needy. During the severe famine of 1866, he founded a society to help the poor, put himself at its head, and collected subscriptions from door to door. He was devoted to the needs of the community and was an outstanding humanitarian. Even when fighting those who wished to change or undermine Jewish religious life and values, he retained the love and respect of all. With his fiery spirit he could not continue in the rabbinate and in 1875 relinquished his position, settling in Warsaw where he lived privately and in great poverty, devoting himself to study and deeds of benevolence. In 1878, when invited to become rabbi of Brest-Litovsk, he agreed on condition that he would be obeyed in all communal matters and that aid for the poor would be under his direction.

The following of his works have been published, all under the title Beit ha-Levi: Novellae on the Talmud, 102 responsa and sermons (2 vols., 1863–64), sermons on Genesis and Exodus (2 vols., 1884), and halakhic novellae (1891). He contributed to R. I. Lipkin's (Salanter) periodical Tevunah in 1861.

          
Paragraph 2    על דרוש ומילי דאגדתא, אשר חנן ה' אותי... יוסף דובער בהרב מוהר"ר יצחק זאב הלוי זצ"ל, נין ונכד... ר' חיים... אב"ד דק"ק וואלאזין... (חלק [א-ב]).

(חלק [א]: בראשית): 64 עמ'. (חלק [א]: עמ' 63-49: לחנוכה. ב הלכות חנוכה... איזה הערות שנתחדש לי. חלק [ב]: שמות: 76 עמ'. חלק [ב]: עמ' 76-63: חידושים בהלכות ספר תורה, תפילין ומזוזה.

          
Reference
Description		    CD-EPI 0153481; EJ
        
Associated Images
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Listing Classification
Period
19th Century:    Checked
  
Location
Russia-Poland:    Checked
  
Subject
Homiletics:    Checked
  
Characteristic
First Editions:    Checked
Language:    Hebrew
  
Manuscript Type
  
Kind of Judaica