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Lot : 36
Discovery.
Manuscript of the sefer Machaneh Yehuda by Rabbi Yehuda Leib Chasman. Circa 1905.
Discovery.
Manuscript of the sefer Machaneh Yehuda by Rabbi Yehuda Leib Chasman.
Circa 1905.
Circa 1905.
Handwritten chiddushim on sugyos of Shas by the gaon and ba’al mussar, Rabbi Yehuda Leib Chasman, Av Beis Din of Shtutchin and mashgiach of the Knesses Yisrael Yeshiva in Chevron, author of Ohr Yahel.
Discovery! This manuscript has never before appeared in print.
The manuscript contains lengthy and in-depth discussions of foundational sugyos in the Gemara, such as hoda’as ba’al din, shlichus, and bittul issurin.
A complete manuscript, including an index of the simanim, entirely in the author’s handwriting.
On the front flyleaf appears the title of the sefer, Machaneh Yehuda (likely in the handwriting of his son), together with stamps in Hebrew and Russian, reading: “Yehuda Leib Chasman, Av Beis Din of Shtutchin, Vilna district.”
The manuscript’s fourth section contains a halachic teshuva. Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Rabinowitz, Av Beis Din of Kovno, wrote a detailed response to it, later printed in the sefer Machaneh Yehuda (siman 5; Jerusalem, 1965).
Rabbi Yehuda Leib Chasman (1869–1936) was one of the great ba’alei mussar of the yeshivos of Lithuania. In his youth, he studied together with the gaon Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski in their native town of Ivye. He studied Torah from Rabbi Itchele Blazer, the Alter of Slabodka, and the Alter of Kelm, and after his marriage studied in the Volozhin Yeshiva.
He served as Rav in the town of Ludvinov (where he wrote most of his chiddushim between the years 1905–1909), and later in Shtutchin, where he maintained an important yeshiva. He served as the menahel ruchani of the Telz Yeshiva, and in 1926 was invited by the Alter of Slabodka to serve as mashgiach of the Knesses Yisrael–Chevron Yeshiva.
Rabbi Yehuda Leib was one of the outstanding figures of the mussar movement, possessing a unique path in thought and mussar teaching. The Alter of Slabodka referred to him as “der ilui fun mussar” – “the mussar genius.” His talks and essays were printed in the renowned sefarim Ohr Yahel. From his chiddushim on Shas, the sefer Machaneh Yehuda was published in Jerusalem in 1965; that volume contains chiddushim not included in the present manuscript.
His close friend, Rabbi Yechezkel Sarna, noted in his introduction to the above-mentioned sefer Machaneh Yehuda that the name of Rabbi Yehuda Leib Chasman was known throughout the Torah world as one of the great ba’alei mussar, yet not all were aware that he was also a distinguished rav and rosh yeshiva. With this manuscript, we are privileged to reveal yet another portion of his Torah in pilpul and halacha.
A complete manuscript from approximately the years 1905–1909.
Page count: [1], 74 leaves (149 written pages).
Size: 17 × 21 cm.
Condition: Minor marginal corrections. New leather binding.
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Regarding the writing of his chiddushim, his only son, R’ Raphael Chasman, writes:
“From his isolation in Ludvinov, he found refuge in immense hasmada (extraordinary diligence) in Torah study. Indeed, during those years (1905–1909), he succeeded in committing to writing most of his chiddushei Torah and halachic responsa, arranged for print under the name Machaneh Yehuda. I recall that he would sit alone for most of the day, wrapped in his tallis and tefillin like one of the early sages, in the empty and silent women’s gallery of the shul, and write chiddushei Torah in his astonishingly clear handwriting.”
