Physical Description

First edition, quarto, 525, [3] pp. quarto, 235:165 mm., light age staining. A very good copy bound in the original cloth over boards.

Detail Description

First edition of this distinguished work by R. Menahem Mendel Taub, the Kaliver rebbe. There are two title-pages, the first with an attractive decorative frame and abbreviated title. The second, more detailed title-page, states that it is “Pure words (Psalms 12:7) on the Hamushei Humshei Torah. Wondrous words “sweeter than honey” (cf. Judges 14:18). There is considerable prefatory material, including introductions and a section on the yod alef middot, followed by the text on Bereshit and Shemot. This volume is the first part of an extensive highly regarded thirteen volume work by the Kaliver rebbe

R. Menahem Mendel Taub (born 1923) is the Rebbe of the Kaliv Hasidic dynasty. Born in Transylvania in 1923, he is seventh in a direct paternal line to the founder of the dynasty, Rabbi Yitzchak Izak of Kaliv, a disciple of the Rebbe Reb Elimelech of Lizhensk. R. Taub is the son of Rabbi Yehuda Yechiel Taub, the Rozler Rov, and son-in-law of Grand Rabbi Pinchos Shapiro, the Kechneyer Rebbe, scion of the Nadvorna dynasty. In 1944, he was deported to Auschwitz concentration camp, arriving there three days before Shavuot. While in Auschwitz, he was experimented upon by Josef Mengele. Because of "chemical burning experiments", he is unable to grow facial hair; he is also unable to have children He was transferred from Auschwitz to the Warsaw Ghetto and the Breslau concentration camp, and later to Bergen-Belsen. Six months after the war ended, he reunited with his wife in Sweden. In 1947 they immigrated to the United States and settled in Cleveland, Ohio. He and his wife immigrated to Israel in 1962. The following year he founded Kiryas Kaliv in Rishon LeZion. The foundation stone was laid on 7 Adar 5723 (3 March 1963), the day of the yahrtzeit of the founder of the dynasty, Grand Rabbi Yitzchak Isak Taub. Several years later he moved his headquarters to Bnei Brak. In 2004, the rebbe's court moved to Jerusalem. In March 2014 he participated in the annual conference of the Rabbinical Congress of Europe, which met in Budapest to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the destruction of Hungarian Jewry. He delivered an emotion-laden speech in Hebrew, and switched to English to direct remarks to US President Barack Obama and Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Hebrew Description

Reference