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Sefer: Shivhei ha-Besht

Rare Letters, Controversial & Valuable Hasidic Books – Genazym Auction

Rare Letters, Controversial & Valuable Hasidic Books – Genazym Auction

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Genazym Auction is holding an auction on March 21st that includes many important letters and manuscripts and a small number of books (download a pdf of the catalog here).  Many of the books are Hasidic or owned by well-known Hasidic figures.  For example, the rare first edition of the No’am Elimelekh, 1788, by R. Elimelekh of Lyzhensk (lot 13).  That book, like other early Hasidic books are both fundamental to the Hasidic philosophy and theology and were controversial among those opposed to…

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Mayim Hayyim, the Baal Shem Tov, and R. Meir the son of R. Jacob Emden

Mayim Hayyim, the Baal Shem Tov, and R. Meir the son of R. Jacob Emden

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Sources contemporary to the Baal Shem Tov that attest to his deeds, or that even discuss him at all, are sparse. Although some secular sources, including tax records and other documents, have recently been unearthed by academic researchers, there is a paucity of Jewish texts. Most of the “historical” record regarding the Baal Shem Tov comes from a collection of stories, Shivhei Ha-Besht.[1] That work, however, was collected much later and is less reliable than others when assessing the Baal…

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