Rav Avraham Chai Reggio Brings A Sefer To Life

By Eli Genauer

Note: I would like to thank Rabbi Gad
Bouskila of Congregation Netivot Israel in Brooklyn for helping me decipher
Rav Avraham Reggio’s handwriting

Rav Avraham Chai (Vita) ben Azriel Reggio  (1755-1842) was the Rav of Gorizia, in
northern Italy for over forty years. During that time period, he answered
Sha’aylot both locally and from abroad, wrote a Sefer Torah, performed 300 circumcisions,
and gave many Drashot that changed people’s lives.[1] We are told that the
Derashot he gave before Neilah were so inspiring that

We are also informed that the
townspeople ascribed their being saved from a Cholera epidemic by Rav Avraham’s
righteousness.

Rav Avraham wrote a Sefer on the prohibition of
shaving on Chol Hamoed called “Tiglachat Hama’amar” printed anonymously in Livorno
(either 1839 or 1844) which was a refutation of his son Isaac Samuel Reggio’s  book “Ma’amar HaTiglachat” (Vienna 1835 ) which
argued for permitting it.[2]

One of the arguments put forward in his son’s book
was that “times have changed”, therefore the Halacha could be different.  Rav Avraham responds to this argument and
writes as follows about changing the Halacha:

I have a Mishnayot Zeraim which was printed in Amsterdam
in 1646 as part of the printing of the entire Babylonian Talmud by Immanuel
Beneveniste.

As you can see, there are numerous stamps on the
title page, but aside from those marks of ownership, we know that the book at
one time belonged to Avraham Reggio by this handwriting on the back page.

פלפולה כל שהוא
ממני הז׳ אברהם ריגייו

פיאה–פרק א׳ משנה ו׳

לעולם הוא נותן
משום פיאה ופטור מן המעשרות עד שימרח ע״כ

הרמ׳ב׳ם פירש
ז׳ק׳ל שכל מי שלא הניח פיאה וקצר כל השדה
כלו יוציא הפיאה ממה שקצר וכן אם לא הוציא מן השבלים הקצורים יוציא מן החטה אחר
שידושו אותה וימרחוה ויבררוה ואפילו טחנה וכו׳ 

קשיא לי טובא
שהפירוש הזה מנגד המשנה האומרת   ופטור מן המעשרות עד שימרח. א״כ המריחה קובע למעשר. ומה זה שאומר יוציא הפיאה אפי׳ אחר המריחה ויהא
פטור מן המעשרות! 

אם
לא שנוסיף תיבת קודם שימרחנה ויבררוה או שנוסיף אחר
אומרו מן הקמח
התיבות כלו׳ ובלבד שיוציא  קודם המעשרות
הראויות וצ״ע 

The matter under discussion is Mishnayot Peah 1:6
and deals with whether Maaser has to be taken from that which is designated as
Peah. Rav Avraham understands from his reading of the Peirush Hamishnayos on
this Mishneh, that the position of  the
Rambam is that Maaser does not have to be separated from that which is
designated as Peah even after Merichah has been done.[3]

The Rambam writes as follows:

 In asking his
question, it is clear That Rav Avraham understands the Rambam to be saying that
you are obligated to separate a portion for Peah even after the flour made from
harvested wheat is ground and that you are never obligated at any stage to
separate Ma’asrot. This is not clear to me from the Lashon of the Rambam who might
be saying normally one does not have to separate Maaser from Peah and adding
that Peah always has to be separated even at the latest stage of crop
production. The Rambam actually makes his comment דע שהפאה לא תחחייב להוציא ממנה מעשרות
on our Mishneh which says לעולם הוא נותן משום פיאה ופטור מן המעשרות
עד שימרח.
One would have to agree though, that
the Lashon of the Rambam is confusing.

There are
many diagrams that are drawn by hand in the book which fill in the blank spaces
left by the printer. Here is an example of a fairly complex one which I believe
was drawn by Rav Avraham Reggio.[4]

This
particular volume of Mishnayot needed some special Siyata D’Shemaya to survive
the Nazi annihilation of both Jews and their property. After being owned by Rav
Avraham Reggio, the book was the property of the library of the Jewish
community of Berlin.

We are
informed by the present day website of the Berlin Jewish Library that most of
the holdings belonging to this library did not survive the war. This makes this
book akin to an ״אוד מוצל מאש״ (זכריה ג:ב).

“The library of the Jewish Community of Berlin was founded in 1898. It opened its doors in 1902 in the community’s administration building on Oranienburger Strasse and quickly became a highly popular scientific resource, open to Jewish community members and the general public. By the time the National Socialist regime dissolved the Jewish community and forced its library to close, the institution had nine branches with more than 100,000 volumes, nearly all of which were lost in the war.” 

The book became part of the restitution efforts of the Jewish Cultural Reconstruction after the war and was eventually sent to Israel to be part of the library of the “Encyclopedia Hatalmudit”

Is it
possible that just as Rav Avraham Reggio saved his town from a cholera
epidemic, that his writings saved this book from being destroyed in the war?