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Lot : 97

Semichah Letter
by Rabbi Chananya Elchanan Cohen
Firenze, 1828

Talmid of the
‘Zera Shimshon’
___

Start price: $2,000
|
Est. Price: $5,000 - $7,000

Semichah Letter
by Rabbi Chananya Elchanan Cohen
Firenze, 1828

Talmid of the
‘Zera Shimshon’
___

A beautiful handwritten semichah letter in impressive script by Rabbi Chananya Elchanan Cohen, Av Beis Din of Reggio and Firenze, prime disciple of the Zera Shimshon, bound together with a summary of the laws of shechitah handwritten by his talmid Rabbi Yosef ben Rabbi Nosson Orvito.
Rabbi Chananya Elchanan Cohen (1751-1834) was the prime disciple of the saintly kabbalist Rabbi Chaim Shimshon Nachmani, author of Zera Shimshon. Rabbi Chananya Elchanan served as Av Beis Din of Firenze, Italy, and included in his sefarim many sacred songs and poems which he’d learned from the Zera Shimshon whom he refers to as “Mori v’rabi.” He named his son after the Zera Shimshon, who passed away childless (see title page of his sefer Chanoch Lanaar [Venice, 1804]).
In The Order of Tikkun Chatzos that Rabbi Chananya Elchanan Cohen printed in Reggio, 1822 and again in Firenze, 1826, he included the stirring kinah “Bemar evkeh besoch Golah” that the Zera Shimshon composed for Tisha B’Av.
Rabbi Chananya Elchanan was born in the city of Reggio where the Zera Shimshon served as Rav, he disseminated Torah to the masses, and cultivated many talmidim who later became the spiritual luminaries and Rabbanim of Italy. Rabbi Chananya Elchanan was a genius in Torah and possessed myriads of talents; he was an profound orator, grammarian, composer of poems and songs and prolific author who wrote many sefarim. The most famous among them were Chanoch Lanaar and Reishis Lekach which he wrote for Italian Jewish youth in order to guide them along the path of Torah and yiras Shamayim. Most of his sefarim were printed in his press in Reggio.
Rabbi Chananel Nifi, Av Beis Din of Cento, relates a marvelous story that he heard firsthand from Rabbi Chananya Elchanan Cohen regarding his spiritual master the Zera Shimshon: A fire once broke out right next to the Zera Shimshon’s house, and grew until it reached the walls of his porch. The Zera Shimshon opened his window and stood facing the conflagration while immersed in prayer. All at once, by a miracle, the fire extinguished, and the Zera Shimshon suffered no damage (Toldos Gedolei Yisrael [Trieste, 1853] p. 325 #25; p. 105).
The semichah letter is bound together with a notebook which includes a handwritten summary of the laws of shechitah in Italian by Rabbi Chananya Elchanan Cohen’s talmid Rabbi Yosef ben Rabbi Nosson Orvito.
Manuscript: 14 sides on thick, high-quality paper + 2 large folded leaves. Page size: 14 cm;
Semichah letter: 22×13 cm. All in good condition; bound in attractive new half-leather binding.
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