"Great among Giants": Sefer Be'er Sheva. Copy that Belonged to the Leader of Hungarian Jewry, the Mahara"m A"sh. ...

"Great among Giants": Sefer Be'er Sheva. Copy that Belonged to the Leader of Hungarian Jewry, the Mahara"m A"sh. Lengthy Handwritten Glosses

"The gaon Mahara"m ztz"l was the greatest disciple of my father, the light of the exile, the sacred gaon, ztz"l, the best of the best of his disciples in Torah, righteousness and good character" (Derashot HaKtav Sofer p. 197)

Sefer Be'er Sheva, novellae and responsa. Early and fundamental work. (Tradition maintains that this sefer [in siman 18] is the source for the halachic opinion that forbids using wigs for women's hair-covering.) Authored by Rabbi Yissachar Ber Eilenberg, with an approbation from the Mahara"l of Prague, and an approbation from Rabbi Naftali HaKohen Katz, author of the semichat chachamim given to this edition. Second edition. Frankfurt am Main, 1709.

Personal and sacred copy that belonged to the Chatam Sofer's greatest disciple and his successor as leader of Hungarian Jewry, the sacred gaon Rabbi Meir Eisenstadter, known by the moniker Mahara"m A"sh. His signature appears (twice) on the title page: 'Gifted to me by Hashem, the small one, Meir A"sh.' Three lengthy glosses in his hand appear along the leaves of the sefer. Apparently only one of these was printed in his sefarim. Signatures by the Mahara"m A"sh are very scarce, even more rare than finding sefarim with his handwritten glosses.

The glosses are:

In the section on novellae:

• Tractate Horiyot, Chap III, page 11b (page 14a in the pages of the sefer): Lengthy gloss, three lines long [35 words].
• Tractate Sotah, Chap. VII, page 41a in the pages of the sefer): Lengthy gloss, slightly cropped, eighteen lines long [approximately 33 words].

In the section of responsa:

• Siman 12 (page 71a in the pages of the sefer): two-line long gloss [approximately 14 words]. The second line is cropped.

As mentioned, this is the personal copy that belonged to the leader of Hungarian Jewry - the Mahara"m A"sh, from which he studied extensively, and from which he composed his his sacred works, led by Sh"ut Imrei E"sh, which became one of the fundamental works of piskei halachah.

Only once does the Mahara"m A"sh mention Be'er Sheva in his sefarim, in Imrei E"sh (Orach Chaim, at the end of siman 5) in a responsum to his son. The responsum opens with the words: "Sovah smachot v'rov berachot should be showered upon your head, my dear, precious son, the wondrous and expert avreich with fear of Heaven, the sacred Rabbi Yehudah ..." At the end of that same responsum, the Mahara"m A"sh refers his son to Sefer Be'er Sheva, as follows: 'In the name of the Be'er Sheva (Sotah 41a), where his intent is to determine from this sugya not like the Rem"a. From your father, Meir A"sh' (refer to the attached photocopy). It is extremely exciting to see that in this copy here, on the very same leaf and the very same page, there is indeed a lengthy gloss handwritten by the Mahara"m A"sh.

Refer to the Hebrew catalog text for a brief biography of Rabbi Meir Eisenstadt, known as Mahara"m A"sh, after his sefer.

[2] 79, 81-93, [6] leaf, lacking 2 leaves from the indices at the end of the sefer.

Fine condition. Sacred usage marks and stains along the entire sefer. Light wear in reinforcements to the margins of several individual leaves, with light damage to the text. Light wear in the margins of the title page, without any damage to the text. Magnificent new leather binding. With a matching slipcase.