Auction 16 Judaica - Books, Manuscripts, Rabbinical Letters
Jul 13, 2011 (Your local time)
Israel
 8 Ramban St, Jerusalem.
The auction has ended

LOT 20:

Goblet of Salvation belonging to the Rebbe of Shtefenesht

Start price:
$ 40,000
Auction house commission: 23%
VAT: On commission only
tags:

Silver Kiddush goblet, with a portrait of Rabbi Avraham Matityahu Friedman, the righteous Rebbe of Shtefenesht. [Romania, late 19th - early 20th century.] Unmarked silver.
Quality silver goblet, with numerous foliage-patterned ornamentations. Positioned on three ball-shaped legs. In the center, a portrait in relief of the Rebbe of Shtefenesht, above which appears the text,"Marele Rabin din Stefanesti" [œThe Great Rabbi of Shtefenesht"].
The Rebbe Rabbi Avraham Matityahu Friedman of Shtefenesht [Stefanesti] (1848-1933; see Encyclopedia of Hassidism, Vol. 1, pp 131-132), grandson of Rabbi Yisrael of Ruzhin, had thousands of followers and a tremendous impact upon Romanian Jewry. In a Halachic response, Rabbi Bezalel Shafran wrote in reference to the Rebbe,"The power of that great and holy elder was known to all, a true worshiper of G-D, glory of our country¦ Everybody obeys his holy sayings." (Rabbi Bezalel Ze'ev Responsa, section 1, Yoreh De'ah, chapter 116.) Legend was that the Rebbe's prayers would last for hours without him making a sound; in the Mussaf prayer of Rosh HaShana he stood hunched for two hours without moving, as he did when shaking the Lulav on Sukkot. Many wondrous stories were told about him in his generation as well as ours, regarding curing the ill, barren women giving birth and more.
After his death, the Rebbe's bones were brought to Eretz Israel and interred in the Ruzhin Rebbe dynasty plot in the Nachalat Yitzhak cemetery in Tel Aviv. His gravesite became a center for prayers and there are numerous stories of salvations that took place as a result of praying at his holy grave.
This salvation goblet was apparently gifted to the Rebbe by a Jewish silversmith who attributed his ill daughter's cure to the Rebbe's prayer.
Height: 11.7 cm., diameter: 7 cm. Good condition. Enclosed are photographs of the goblet, taken by the Committee of Shtefenesht Hassidim in Eretz Israel.