Pnei Yehoshua, parts 3 and 4—copy of the Admor the Mekor Baruch of Seret-Vizhnitz. Sadilkov 1834

Pnei Yehoshua, parts 3 and 4—copy of the Admor the Mekor Baruch of Seret-Vizhnitz. Sadilkov 1834

Separate cover for each section. 31, 31-62, 61-106; [1], 48 pages. Light moth damage, stains, generally good condition, old binding is worn a bit at the edges. Cover and blank first page have stamps of ownership of the Admor of Seret-Vizhnitz, Rabbi Baruch Hager, the Mekor Baruch, from when he lived at 16 Bilu Street, Haifa.

Rabbi Baruch Hager of Seret-Vizhnitz (1895-1964) was the son of the Ahavat Yisrael of Vizhnitz. He was a member of the Council of Torah Sages, named the Mekor Baruch after his work on the Torah. He was a huge Talmid Chacham, and was certified for the rabbinate by greats of the period: Rabbi Meir Arik and Rabbi Avraham Menachem Mendel Steinberg. He first married the daughter of Rabbi Issachar Dov Rokeach (the Maharid of Belz), and served in the rabbinates of Poylen and Kutzman (cities), and in 1936 he was the first rabbi of Siret (Bokovina), where he established the Beit Yisrael v’Tamchin d’Oraita yeshiva and led it, until the Jews were expelled during the Shoah. He headed the Transnistria and Dzorin exiles, and dealt with public business and on behalf of the welfare of the oppressed and, later, the survivors. After the war he was in Antwerp, and despite the pleading of residents he refused to join the rabbinate there, saying the thing he most wanted was to move to Israel. In 1947 his wish came true, and he moved to Israel, where he settled in Haifa. Being a visionary, our rabbi reasoned that he wanted to cause the spiritual wilderness that existed there to flower, so a few years later he established the Ramat Vizhnitz neighborhood in the foothills of the Carmel. He authored a number of works, including a comprehensive commentary on the Choshen Mishpat, but unfortunately most of those were lost during the time of the Shoah. He was buried next to his forefathers, Admorim of Vizhnitz, next to his father, the Ahavat Yisrael.