Kestenbaum Auctions Rare Tanya

Kestenbaum & Company will conduct an auction of Fine Judaica on Thursday, December 8th at 3:00 pm. The sale will be held at the company’s gallery at 242 West 30th Street in New York City.

Buyers will be afforded an opportunity to select from an extensive selection of Printed Books, Manuscripts, Autograph Letters & Graphic Art.

Here are some of the Chabad related lots:

Lot: 42 (AUSTRALIA). Nechamath Tzion / The Consolation of Zion; Giving an Account of the Progress of the Mission of Rabbi Hyam Zevee Sneersohn, Who Visits the Australian Colonies for the Purpose of Raising Subscriptions towards the Erection of Houses of Refuge on Mount Zion. Introduction translated from the Hebrew of Rabbi Sneersohn by the Rev. M. Rintel, Senior Jewish Minister of Melbourne. Detailed reports of meetings across Australia. pp.28. Ex-library, worn. Needs rebinding. 8vo.

Melbourne, 1863.: $1,000 – $1,500

Hayim Zvi Sneersohn of Jerusalem (1834-82) was a fourth-generation descendant of R. Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the founder of Chabad Chassidism. Sneersohn undertook far-reaching fund-raising missions on behalf of Colel Chabad. Whilst on these lengthy trips, he conceived the notion that the Redemption of the Jews would come about, not through Messianic forces, but in a natural way, beginning with small gestures and eventually resulting in the complete Redemption of the Jewish People. Sneersohn felt that in order to realize his plan, he must obtain the active assistance of the Gentile nations of the world, to garner not just financial support from Jews but also aid and encouragement from Christian political and ecclesiastic leaders. Having been feted in Australia, Sneersohn travelled to America, where he was honored with the opportunity to meet and later correspond with President Ulysses Grant and was even granted honorary American citizenship. In New York in 1872 Sneersohn published his work Palestine and Roumania.

Upon his return to the Holy Land, Sneersohn discovered that his activities had aroused the opposition of the communal heads in Jerusalem and therefore he felt compelled to move away. Choosing to settle in South Africa, he died there in 1882.
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Lot: 66 (CHASSIDISM). SCHNEUR ZALMAN OF LIADI Torah Ohr. FIRST EDITION. Two title-pages, first title printed in red and black. ff. (1), 167, (1). Stained, crude paper repairs to first title with some loss along upper margin. Modern elaborately tooled calf. 4to. [Vinograd, Kopyst 146].

Kopyst, Sabbatai Slavin: 1836.: $2,000 – $3,000

Kabbalistic explanations of the weekly Torah portions from the first two Books of the Pentateuch, as well as the Book of Esther and one sermon on Passover.

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Lot: 79 (CHASSIDISM). SCHNEERSOHN, JOSEPH ISAAC. Di Moralishe un Dertziershe Badeitung fun Chasiduss Chaba”d. [“The Moral and Educational Meaning of Chabad Chassidim: An Answer by the Lubavitcher Rebbe to a Letter from Germany.”]. Translated into Yiddish by B. Godin and Ch. Michailover, students of “Achoth Temimim”. pp. (2), 9-30. Brittle, ex-library. Wrappers. 12mo. [Not in Haberman, Sha’arei Chabad].

(Warsaw?), L. Wapne: 1938.: $700 – $900

The sixth Rebbe of Lubavitch, Joseph Isaac Schneersohn (1880-1950) advocates here the study of Chabad Chassidism by the German-Jewish intelligentsia. The original Hebrew version appeared in HaTamim, Vol. 4 (June 1936). The translation was executed by two female students of the Lubavitch educational network in Poland, “Achoth Temimim,” an institution that paralleled the Lubavitch Yeshivah “Tomchei Temimim” for men.

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Lot: 77 (CHASSIDISM). SHNEUR ZALMAN OF LIADI. (Tanya) – Likutei Amarim. With manuscript corrections in a number of hands, including that of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Leaves frayed with various wear. Unbound. Sm. 4to. [Mondschein, Tanya 42].

Brooklyn, Saphograph Co.: 1953.: $5,000 – $7,000

THE FIRST TANYA PRINTED IN AMERICA. THIS COPY WITH MANUSCRIPT CORRECTIONS IN THE HAND OF THE LATE LUBAVITCHER REBBE, Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Although the Vilna edition has remained the standard layout for all subsequent editons of the Tanya, in preparation for the publication of the first American edition in 1953, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, noted that a number of minor corrections were needed. Using this printer’s proof, the Rebbe indicated in pencil a handful of errors.

This copy was then forwarded to the printer to be used as a model for the printing of innumerable subsequent editions published all over the world for decades hence. Accompanying this lot is a description specifying the importance of this work, along with a letter written by R. Chaim Shaul Bruk, editor of Hanachoth BeLashon HaKodesh, attesting as to which pencilled corrections are in the hand of the Rebbe. It has since been suggested that additional corrections are in the hand of the Rebbe. Further research required.

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Lot: 307 SCHNEERSON, JOSEPH ISAAC. (Sixth Grand Rabbi of Lubavitch, 1880-1950). Typed Letter Signed in Hebrew on personal letterhead written to Rabbi Dr. Leo Jung of Manhattan’s Jewish Center. Concerning the need to return to the Jewish Community the many thousands of Jewish children in Europe currently under the guardianship of the Church following the end of the War. The Rebbe suggests a major publicity campaign to be undertaken in order to arouse public opinion pertaining to this important issue. One page, pencil notations.

Brooklyn, New York, 29th Tamuz, 1947.: $500 – $700

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+ Auction 53 catalogue – Dec. 8, 2011