Physical Description  

[2], 80, [2]; [2] 116 ff., quarto, 247:195 mm., usual age staining, wide margins, sharp edges. A very good copy bound in contemporary boards, rubbed.

Detailed Description   

Hasidic commentary to the Pentateuch, Holidays, several responsa, and novellae by R. Hayyim b. Arye Loeb Halberstam (1793–1876), founder of the Zanz hasidic dynasty. He was born in Tarnogrod. As a youth Hayyim was brought to R. Jacob Isaac the hozeh ("seer") of Lublin who strongly influenced him and he became a Hasid; he studied under R. Naphtali of Ropczyce and R. Zevi Hirsch of Zhidachov. R. Hayyim also studied with R. Zevi Hirsch of Rymanow, R. Shalom Rokeah of Belz, and R. Israel of Ruzhin. In 1830 he was appointed rabbi of Nowy Sacz (Zanz). R. Hayyim administered his yeshivah in the best scholarly tradition of the old-style yeshivot in Poland. He would not permit his pupils to cultivate Hasidism until a late stage. Thus both Hasidim and mitnaggedim were attracted to his yeshivah. Known as strict in matters of learning and observance, he conducted his "court" modestly and discreetly and avoided the splendor and luxury customary at the "courts" of other zaddikim in that period. R. Hayyim wrote: Divrei Hayyim (Zolkiew, 1864), on ritual purity and divorce laws; responsa Divrei Hayyim (Lemberg, 1875), and Divrei Hayyim (Munkacz, 1877), hasidic sermons on Torah and the festivals. His works reveal a profound knowledge of the Talmud and commentaries, the midrashim, and medieval philosophical literature. He quotes widely from R. Judah Halevi's Kuzari, Maimonides, Nahmanides, and R. Abraham ibn Daud. From later literature, he cites R. Isaiah Horowitz, R. Judah Loew of Prague, the prayer book of R. Jacob Emden, and his teachers in Kabbalah and Hasidism. An opponent of asceticism, R. Hayyim was an exponent of the ecstatic mode of prayer and developed the hasidic melody. In his writings he emphasized the duty of charity and criticized zaddikim who lived luxuriously.

Hebrew Description   

  ... [על התורה] על מועדים וחידושים על ב"מ ... ועתה יצא לאור פעם שלישית על ידי הרב ... מו"ה שלום אליעזר האלברשטאם שליט"א בנו של ... המחבר ... חלק א-ב.

References

Bibliography of the Hebrew Book 1470-1960 #000118601; EJ; M. Buber, Tales of the Hasidim, 2 (1963), pp. 208–15; H. Rabinowicz, The World of Hasidim (1970), p. 227