Auction 1 - Rare Hebrew Books, Manuscripts & Rabbinic Letters
Lot 38:
Description
For generations, Rabbi Bezalel Ronsburg (1760-1820) has occupied a place of distinction among the great rabbinic figures of Prague. A disciple of the Noda BiYehudah, renowned dayan, rosh yeshivah and one of the foremost Talmudists of Bohemia, his penetrating glosses became part of the standard Talmud itself, while his responsa and novellae earned him a lasting reputation for extraordinary analytical precision. Yet the present letter reveals a side of R. Bezalel that no printed sefer can capture.
Addressed to his brother-in-law and longtime study companion, Rabbi Yehudah Kleinburg, the letter is a warm and deeply personal response to a Torah communication that R. Bezalel praises as being “filled with Torah from beginning to end.” Rather than proceeding directly to the halakhic discussion, he opens by apologizing for his delayed reply, drawing the recipient, and us, into the circumstances in which it was written.
Penned in Plass (today Plasy, Bohemia), the letter finds R. Bezalel temporarily residing with his elderly father-in-law. He describes how the pleasures of Torah conversation with the latter, together with the fatigue of his recent journey from nearby Pilsen, left him with scarcely a free moment. Only “two hours after midnight,” once the entire household had retired, could he finally sit down in solitude to answer his brother-in-law’s questions.
These remarks are far more than incidental pleasantries. Elsewhere in his own writings, R. Bezalel similarly remarks that many of his Torah compositions were produced only after the demands of the day had ended and the household had fallen asleep. This private letter offers the most vivid surviving expression of that reality: the great Prague scholar, weary from travel, surrounded by family, immersed in learned conversation throughout the day, and only in the stillness of the night finding the uninterrupted hours in which to write Torah.
The letter also preserves a rare glimpse into R. Bezalel’s family circle. Besides Rabbi Yehudah, he extends warm greetings to his distinguished sister-in-law named Hendel (“הקצינה והגבירה המושכלת מ׳ הענדל”), together with additional family members, before turning to the substantive Torah discussion. Such personal references are largely absent from his published works and lend the letter an uncommon intimacy.
Autograph letter, single folio written on both sides in R. Bezalel Ronsburg’s characteristic Hebrew cursive, concluding with his full autograph signature. Dated “Or le-Yom Heh, 9 Elul 5568,” corresponding to Thursday evening, 1 September 1808, and written in Plass (Plasy), Bohemia.
Condition: very good condition
Opening price: $12,000
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