Lot 69:

Extremely rare - Manuscript, Kuntres of eight pages by the holy Gaon Rabbi Baruch Kahana...

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Extremely rare – Manuscript, Kuntres of eight pages by the holy Gaon Rabbi Baruch Kahana Rappaport Av Beis Din and Ram of Furth, one of the leading Marbitzei Torah of his generation – Furth, Adar 1744.

Halachic responsum pertaining to the kashruth of a Sefer Torah in which the letter "ו’ קטיעא" of the words "בריתי שלום" in Parashas Pinchas was uncommonly written without being shortened – a polemic that upset the rabbis and communities of Italy in those days – the responsum was never printed.

The responsum is addressed to the rabbis of Venice. It was written in response and as an approbation of a printed Kuntres that he was sent by the rabbis of Venice in 1744, with a question about the Kashruth of a Sefer Torah in Rovigo, Italy.

At the beginning of the responsum a kind of heading was written in a different script [yet appranetly also written in the 1740s]:"התשובה הזאת כמדומה מן הגאון מו"ה בריכ [ברוך] כהנא ראפאפורט זצ"ל אב"ד מפיורדא". [The responsum is apparently by the Gaon [Baruch] Kahana Rappaport Av Beis Din of Furth]. Appearing beneath the heading is the responsum itself, in fine readable script. The responsum is not signed at its end.

Background of the letter: In 1741, on Sabbath Parashas Pinchas, in Rovigo, Italy, when the Ba’al Koreh went through the Sefer Torah before reading from it, he discovered that the Hebrew letter Vav of the verse "הנני נותן לו את בריתי שלום" was not the common shortened Vav (Vav Ktu’ah), as directed in tractate Kiddushin (66) but a complete Vav. Two of the sages of the town ruled that the Sefer Torah should be returned to the Aron Kodesh and another should be read. However, other rabbis disagreed with this ruling and sent the question to the rabbis of Venice. Most of the rabbis of Venice rendered the Sefer Torah Kosher, each one for his reasons. Soon, the dispute reached additional Italian communities and continued to spread to Eretz Yisroel, Turkey, Amsterdam and Frankfurt. Part of the question was whether to correct those Sifrei Torah with the regular Vav, shortening it by erasing some of its lower part. Another issue that stood in the center of the polemic: what would be the implications of rendering the vav kosher if, from the Vav Ktuah, the Gemore in Kiddushin learned some halachot peratining to Avodas Hamikdash that were done by a deformed Cohen.

As stated, most of the rabbis of Venice rendered the Sefer Torah Kosher and ruled that the Vav should not be touched. In 1744, the sages of Venice printed their ruling in a special Kuntes and sent it to leading rabbis in other countries to receive their opinion on the matter. Most of these rabbis agreed with the ruling of the rabbis of Venice. Echos of the dispute can be found in Shut books of the period. See: בתי כהונה, ג, סימנים כ-כא; דבר משה (אמארילייו), ג, יו"ד, סימן ח; זרע אמת, חידושי תענית, דף מד/2; פחד יצחק (לאמפורנטי), ערך ספר תורה, דף קמה/2 ואילך. (On the affair, see: מאיר בניהו, איגרות רבי משה חיים מורפורגו בעניינות ספרים, ירושלים תשי"ט, עמ’ 224; הרב שמחה חסידה, מוריה, גל’ שלט, עמ’ כט ואילך).

One of the rabbis to whom the Kuntres was sent was the holy Gaon Rabbi Baruch Kahana Rappaport Av Beis Din and Ram of Furth. In this response, he rules like the majority of the rabbis of Venice that the Sefer Torah is Kosher and does not need to be corrected. However, he also added at the end of his lengthy responsum: "לכתחילה כל סופר יחוש לעצמו לחקור אחר המנהג, כי בדור זה הוא הנכון דמנהג עוקר הלכה, ומה גם לילך אחר רוב ס"ת שבמק'[ם] או במדינה… זאת. והנה האמת לא אכחיד אשר פה קהילתינו יצ"ו כמעט רוב'[ם] ככולם בוי"ו כרותה".

At the end of his responsum he recalls a kind of Ma’asseh Rav on a Sefer Torah he owned from the short time he served as Rav in Vilna: "ומה גם אשר אתי עמי במחיצתי ס"ת א’ ממדינת פולין עיר ואם בישראל ק"ק ווילנ'[א] אשר שם היתה… כמה שני'[ם] על כסא הוראה, ונכתב ע"י סופר מובהק אדם גדול, ונמצא שם בוי"ו כרותה. אמנם נהרא נהרא ופשטי’, ועכ"פ שלא להגיה"

Please refer to Hebrew catalog text for a brief biography of the holy Gaon Rabbi Baruch Kahana Rappaport Av Beis Din and Ram of Furth.

Rabbi Baruch did not publish anything during his lifetime. Some of his responsa was printed in other Shut books that were published in his period. Nothing survived of all his responses and letters, although many disciples introduced innovations in his name including the Chida, the Korban Nethanel, the Pri Megadim, Rabbi tzadok Hacohen of Lublin and more (sources: Rabbi Binyomin Shlomo Hamburger, Hayeshiva Harama BeFurth, I, p. 387 and onward).

As stated, this responsum is not signed and has no afterwords either. Thus, we cannot conclusively say that this is indeed a manuscript handwritten by him or by a scribe. There are no other known manuscript by him to compare. Possibly, the responsum was not sent back. In all the printed responses pertaining to the issue, which involved some of Gedolei Hador, there is no reference to this responsum.

It should be noted, however, that some of the expressions and phrases appearing on the first page of this manuscript have verbatim parallels in two of his letters that have been printed. See: Hayeshiva Harama, I, p. 423, 427-429. Apparently, he had typical opening sentences which he commonly used. (see enclosed material).

[4] leaves (8 written pages). 22 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains and wear. Small tears to the edges of the last leaf, slightly affecting the text.

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