First edition. 26 ff., quarto, 205:140 mm., wide margins, usual age staining. A very good copy bound as issued.

Stories and customs of R. Hayyim b. Arye Loeb Halberstam (1793–1876), founder of the Zanz hasidic dynasty. He was born in Tarnogrod and 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.

Printed in Shanghai for the use of the Holocaust refugees in Shanghai during and immediately after World War II. The city contained 25,000 Jewish refugees when the Pacific War erupted in the latter part of 1941. In July 1942, Colonel Josef Meisinger of the Gestapo arrived in Shanghai and put forth the “Final Solution in Shanghai” to Japanese authorities. Although the plan was not put into effect due to various reasons, the Japanese proclaimed “The Designated Area for Stateless Refugees”, ordering all Jews who had arrived since 1937 to move into the area within a month. The Jews remained within the confined area in a perilous position for nearly four years, threatened by execution. In the above ghetto the world famous Yeshivas Mir flourished with many students studying Torah for long hours. In their haste to escape the European mayhem all books were left behind, necessitating the printing of the current lot.