By COLlive reporter
Kestenbaum & Company’s sale of Fine Judaica to be held on Thursday, February 24th at 3:00pm will mark their 50th Auction since its establishment in 1996.
Highlighting this Jubilee auction, will be the historic Cassuto Collection of Iberian-related books and manuscripts, alongside which, this extensive sale will feature rare Hebrew printed books, manuscripts, autograph letters, graphic and ceremonial art.
Included in the 420-plus lot auction is a broad range of categories including Incunabula, Liturgy, Chassidic and Kabbalistic texts, Bibles, Passover Hagadahs, Illustrated Books, American and Anglo Judaic imprints, Anti-Semitic and Holocaust-related materials.
Among the Chassidic Books, the rarest is undoubtedly an extraordinarily fine copy of Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi‘s Sefer Likutei Amarim (Tanya), the fundamental exposition of Chabad Chassidic philosophy, printed in Slavuta in 1796, at a pre-auction estimate of $100,000-120,000.
Other notable Chassidic texts in the sale include a scarce copy of the Alter Rebbe’s first edition of the Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chaim), printed in Kopyst in 1816, and estimated at $8,000-10,000, and the first anthology of the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov, Kether Shem Tov, two parts bound in one, printed in Zolkiew in 1794, at an estimate of $7,000-10,000.
The autograph letters section of the sale boasts an impressive selection of written correspondences by prominent Rabbinic thinkers and Chassidic leaders and also a correspondence from the Schneerson Family including letters written from Latvia in 1927 shortly after the family’s expulsion from the Soviet Union.
Here is their description of the hand-written letters:
Lot 246
SCHNEERSON, SHTERNA-SORAH. (Wife of the Fifth Grand Rabbi of Lubavitch, R. Shalom Dov Ber Schneerson (RaSHa’B) and Mother of the Sixth Grand Rabbi of Lubavitch R. Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson. 1860-1942).
Autograph Letter Signed in Yiddish to Necha Rivkin. Written in a most distinctively florid hand. One leaf written on both sides, small taped repair. Addressed at end.
A moving letter concerning her family’s expulsion from Russia and finding sanctuary in Latvia.
“How difficult it was for us to leave the ‘alter-heim’ – our home and the home of our holy forefathers… (However) good wishes and help from thousands of our friends eased our pain… Since everything is determined by God it must be for our benefit (and He) will help us live here in peace. (The Rebbe) especially should be well and able to continue his holy work for the Klal…We all feel weak, especially my son the Rebbe shlit’a.”
Written from Riga, Latvia, barely a month after the Schneerson family found asylum, following the release of the Friediker Rebbe from Soviet incarceration.
Riga, 3rd Kislev, (1927) $1000 – 1500
Lot 247
SCHNEERSON, NECHOMA-DINA. (Wife of the Sixth Grand Rabbi of Lubavitch, R. Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson and mother-in-law of the Seventh Rebbe, R. Menachem Mendel Schneerson. 1881-1970).
Autograph Letter Signed in Yiddish to Necha Rivkin. A personal letter reporting family news. One leaf written on both sides, small taped repair. Addressed at end.
“My two older children left two weeks ago to Berlin. Shaindela and I are going on Wednesday. My mother-in-law, the Rebbetzin, is remaining here as it is now difficult for her to acclimatize herself to unfamilair places, here she is comfortable. A long trip of twenty hours would be especially difficult.”
Rebbetzin Nechoma Dina and her husband R. Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson had three children, all girls. Of the elder two mentioned in the letter, Chaya Mushka married the future Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson (and made her first marital home in Berlin) and Chana married Shmaryahu Gur-Arye. The youngest daughter, Shaindel, married Menachem Mendel Horenstein. She and her husband, who were childless, were killed in Treblinka in 1942. All other members of the Schneerson family were able to escape Europe, and via differing passages, found safety in America.
Riga, 22 Av, NY $500 – 700
Lot 248
SCHNEERSON, MOUSSIA (CHAYA-MOUSHKA). (Wife of the Seventh Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson. 1901-1988).
Autograph Letter Signed to her life-long friend, Necha Rivkin of Jerusalem (formerly of Rostov, later of New York and wife of Rabbi Moshe Dov-Ber Rivkin of Yeshivath Torath Emeth in Jerusalem and later, Torah Voda’ath of New York). Sensitive and rather sad letter written entirely in Russian concerning the Schneerson family’s feelings of dislocation, newly arrived as they were in Latvia. Four pages.
Written by Chaya Moushka Schneerson (1901-1988) the second of the three daughters of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson (1880-1950) and soon to be wife (a year after the composition of this letter) to Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902-1994), who succeeded his father-in-law’s title in 1951.
A poignant letter composed just two weeks after the Schneerson family left Russia following the release of the Friediker Rebbe from Soviet incarceration earlier that year.
The letter commences with apologies for not writing until now – “However this was due to our unhappiness these past several months and most recently, due to the awful disruption of our move. It was not until we were actually across the border (did I think) this would become our reality. Yet it was constantly so very hard in the Motherland and we did want to leave… I think you know everything we have experienced… We have all suffered much anguish and therefore have been too depressed to write…We are tired and unsettled, each in his own way miserable.”
Riga, 7th November, (1927) $3000 – 5000
Lot 249
SCHNEERSON, YOSEPH YITZCHAK. (RaYa”Tz. Sixth Grand Rabbi of Lubavitch, 1880-1950). Typed Letter Signed in Hebrew, (with two words in his own hand) on personal letterhead, to R. Abraham Isaac HaKohen Kook, Chief Rabbi of Eretz Israel. One page. Folds.
An important letter displaying the esteem in which the Lubavitcher Rebbe held Chief Rabbi Kook.
Written just five weeks before Rav Kook’s death – a most unusual and surprisingly heartfelt letter in which the Lubavitcher Rebbe sends his sincerest blessings to Rav Kook for a complete recovery from sickness.
The Rebbe commences the letter bestowing honorifics and titles upon Rav Kook reserved for only the very greatest of scholars: “The Gaon who is renowned with splendor among the Geonim of Ya’akov, Amud HaYemini, Patish HaChazak…”
The letter reports that the entire Lubavitch Yeshiva in Warsaw of 200 students gathered to pray on behalf of Rav Kook who was on his death-bed at the time. Furthermore the Rebbe writes, upon receving a second telegraph with negative news, the Yeshiva participated in a full day of prayer established by the Agudath HaRabbanim of Poland pleading the Heavens for the great rabbi’s recovery.
An important letter written between two giants of 20th-century Rabbinic leadership, whose respective spiritual legacies have shaped tens of thousands of their followers toward radically different approaches to Jewish life.
Otwock, 24th Tammuz, 1935 $6000 – 9000
Lot 250
SCHNEERSON, CHANA. (Mother of the Seventh Grand Rabbi of Lubavitch, R. Menachem Mendel Schneerson. 1880-1964).
Autograph Letter Signed in Yiddish to Necha Rivkin, pertaining to health-matters and the summer-climate. One page.
Brooklyn, New York, 21st Av, 1954 $1000 – 1500
To view their full catalogue – click here
It is possible that a monetary value can be placed on physical items that may not be meaningful to one person and of much value to another. I have a letter from the Rebbe sitting in a box. I’m fairly sure that it is of much more value to someone else….
i went to take a look amazing stuff, I held the letter from the Freidiker Rebbe and the Rebbes mother.
They also have an original from Nachman of Breslov.
This is so sad. Our non-Lubavitch relatives say their elderly mother needs the revenues from the sale of these letters. I wish we had sufficient funds to buy them ourselves. Nacha Rivkin was a Heber and so am I. She was my paternal grandfather’s sister. She and the Rebbetzins mentioned here would surely be upset about this public scrutiny of private letters and thier sale to the public. WE, her Lubavitcher relatives should be the ones in possession of these letters – if not the Rebbe’s library and personal archive.
Brocha Chana Heber Metzger
“who gives the rights…
for someone to auction these off???”
Members of the family who are outside Lubavitch and are more interested in monitory matters then any other consideration.
whoever will buy will publish it period
Are the originals being sold, or copies?
Please dont sell the original. Keep them in the hands of merkos or jem or in 770 or something.
I have my own handwritten letters by rebbetzins, Nechama Dina and Chana OB”M. I wouldn’t consider sellng them to anyone but rather leave it for my children and grandchildren,
There is a museum owner in Boro Park who loves to get his grubby hands on anything to do with the Rebbe’s family – vehamayvin yavin. I hope Aguch will purchase these so that they end up in the right hands.
wow what great stuff this is hope it is shared for everyone to see
I’m shocked at the fact that private letters that were sent by the Rebbitzen Musia to Rebbitzin Rivkin are being put up for sale.These letters were kept hidden by Necha Rivkin during her lifetime and not even shown to the members of her family because of their private content.Apparently gelt uber alles overrides any other considerations.How sad.
ma nomar umah nedaber
Items of this sort should be donated to the Rebbe’s library, not auctioned to the highest bidder. If anyone has the money to buy them and donate them to the Rebbe’s library, no doubt he/she will have a big reward in olam habbah for it.
Can’t these holy letters be kept within Chabad? Does anyone know who’s selling them?
for someone to auction these off???