Auction 5 Judaica
By Legacy Judaica
Apr 4, 2019
Freehold Jewish center 59 Broad street, Freehold NJ. 07728, United States
The auction has ended

LOT 214:

R. Avrohom Duber Kahana Shapiro/Dvar Avrohom. Smuggled out of the Kovno Ghetto! Historic discovery!

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Start price:
$ 6,000
Buyer's Premium: 20%
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R. Avrohom Duber Kahana Shapiro/Dvar Avrohom. Smuggled out of the Kovno Ghetto! Historic discovery!
Notebook of unpublished additions to Sefer Dvar Avrohom. Smuggled out of the Kovno Ghetto! Historic discovery!
A 26 page notebook filled with 111 additions and corrections to the work Dvar Avrohom by the author R. Avrohom Duber Kahana Shapiro (1873-1943), (Kovno Rov).
Eight of these notes were published in the Yeshurun Journal (volume 25), including previously unpublished novella of R. Chaim Halevy Soloveitchik (page 22a of this notebook). Most of these notes have never been published!
Background: R. Avrohom Duber published volume one of the Dvar Avrohom in Warsaw in 1906 and Volume two in 1913. In 1930, he republished volume one with corrections and additions in Keidan. In the biography of R. Mordechai Zuckerman, titled Yochid V’Doro (Yerusholayim 2011), it is written in the name of R. Mordechai that in the late 1930’s the Dvar Avrohom still had 5 manuscripts he was preparing for print; D’var Avrohom volume three; Imrei Avrohom (Derashos); the Hebrew version of his sefer Taharas Ha’Mishpocho; a memoir of his days in the Volozhin Yeshiva and a book of corrections and additions to D’var Avrohom volume two. As it became clear that war was imminent, R. Avraham Duber managed to send both the manuscript of volume three and the manuscript of his work of Derashos to his son R. Yeruchum Yehuda Leib who was living in America. Indeed, these two works were published in New York 1946 and 1949. The other manuscripts however, remained in Kovno.
In 1941, while the Dvar Avrohom was in the Kovno Ghetto, an opportunity arose for him to send one of the manuscripts with a messenger to America. He sent this manuscript of corrections with instructions to have it forwarded to his son. The messenger however, mailed the manuscript to the Agudas Ha’Rabbonim in New York. In the letter (included here), the messenger writes that originally the Dvar Avrohom gave him the manuscript with the Dvar Avrohom volume two (presumably to clarify where each of the corrections and additions belonged), but “he later gave it to somebody else and handed me the enclosed material”. The manuscript was wrapped in 4 pages of the indices of the Dvar Avrohom, which include some markings as to where many of the additions belong.
R. Avraham Duber Kahana Shapira (1870-1943), was the last Rav of Kovno and one of the leading Talmidei Chachomim and Rabbinical leaders in Lithuania during the pre-WWII era. When the war broke out in 1939 he was in Switzerland for health reasons. His son, who was living in the United States, sent him a telegram to join him in the U.S. until after the war. His father, upon receiving the telegram, showed it to one of his close friends stating emphatically, “The captain is the last to abandon his sinking ship, not the first. At this time of danger, my place is with the people of my city. I am going to Kovno.” Indeed he continued to lead and inspire his community until he passed away in the Kovno ghetto, and was perhaps the only Rav given a funeral under the watch of the Nazi occupiers.
Lot includes: The 26 page notebook, some pages written on both sides, the 4 pages of indices in which it was wrapped; the letter which was sent by the messenger to accompany the document as well as the envelope. Also included is a page of Mussar, written by an unknown hand.
Varying in size, excellent condition. Small tear on the first page, unbound.
Opening bid $6000
 

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