SEFER NO‘AM ELIMELEKH (HASIDIC HOMILIES ON THE WEEKLY TORAH PORTION), RABBI ELIMELECH OF LYZHANSK, SLAVUTA: RABBI MOSES BEN PHINEHAS [SHAPIRO], 1794

The second edition of a Hasidic classic.

Rabbi Moses Shapiro, son of the Hasidic master Rabbi Phinehas of Korets (1726-1791), founded a printing press in Slavuta in 1791, shortly before the city was annexed by Russia during the second partition of Poland (1793). Under his management and that of his sons Samuel Abraham and Phinehas, the office produced numerous titles through 1836, including three editions of the Babylonian Talmud and some of the most important works of Hasidism, an example of which comprises the present lot.

Rabbi Elimelech of Lyzhansk (1717-1787), a student of Rabbi Dov Ber, the Maggid of Mezhirichi (d. 1772), was one of the most influential Hasidic masters in Galicia, his disciples including such luminaries as Rabbis Abraham Joshua Heschel of Apta, Jacob Isaac Horowitz, the Seer of Lublin, Kalonymus Kalman Epstein of Krakow, Menahem Mendel of Rymanow, and Moses Leib of Sasov. In his Sefer no‘am elimelekh, he used the weekly Torah portion as a springboard to expound a fully developed theology about the all-encompassing role of the tsaddik (saint) in Jewish life. The first edition of the book was brought to press posthumously by the author’s sons Eleazar and Eliezer Lipmann in Lvov in 1788. It included Likkutei shoshannah, short teachings relating to various verses and Talmudic statements, as well as an appendix entitled Sefer iggeret ha-kodesh, comprised of two letters, written at the behest of R. Elimelech, responding to anti-Hasidic polemics. The present, second complete edition was brought to press by the author’s nephew, Israel Abraham ben Meshullam Sussman (Reb Zushe) of Hannopil, with the approbation of the author’s brother, Reb Zushe (1718-1800). The next edition would appear circa 1795 in Shklov, likewise brought to press by the author’s sons.