Autographed Handwritten Hagaos of Rabbi Meir Avraham Author of Pri Tzaddik. 1802 , Important Discovery
Shu”t Maharam Ziskind Rottenberg (Amsterdam, 1716) with autographs and handwritten hagaos by Harav Meir Avraham Klein, Av Beis Din of Tchaba and author of Pri Tzaddik.
The autographed inscription in the flyleaf relates: “I purchased from my money in honor of my Creator, from maaser funds, for… Meir Avraham son of Yoseph (בן מורנו יוסף ) …Thursday, 9 Adar I, 5462 (1802).”
An additional autographed inscription on the title page reads: “I purchased from maaser money for 12… by Meir Avraham BM"Y ( ben moraynu Yoseph)…”
The Av Beis Din of Tchaba inscribed six glosses in his holy hand. It should be noted that there are hardly any known handwritings or autographs from the Pri Tzaddik. To the best of our knowledge, the writings in the present text constitute the single largest collection of his handwritten legacy in the world.
The final leaf bears the autograph of Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Landau from year 1853, attesting that the sefer belonged to his father-in-law Harav Pinchas Dovid Klein, Av Beis Din of Bukin, who was the son-in-law of the aforementioned Harav Meir Avraham Klein, Av Beis Din of Tchaba.
Harav Meir Avraham (d. 1829), Av Beis Din of Tchaba and author of Pri Tzaddik, was called by the Chasam Sofer “Ish Elokim.” Pious and holy, he gained a reputation as a miracle worker who possessed ruach hakodesh, and countless stories circulated throughout Hungary regarding his unparalleled sanctity and power to evoke miracles. For twenty years prior to his passing, he abstained from eating meat, learning Torah in seclusion in a cave throughout the day and night. The author of Be’er Shmuel of Unsdorf likewise praised him as “an angel in human form.”
In his approbation to Pri Tzaddik, the Yismach Moshe refers to the author four times as a “tzaddik.” When the Admor Harav Yoel of Satmar saw the approbation, he remarked that “this was not a word commonly used in the past, and certainly not four times!”
Harav Meir Avraham studied under the Machatzis Hashekel and Chozeh of Lublin. His grandson Harav Shlomo Zalman Freidman, Av Beis Din of Tanka, related that it was the Chozeh who sent his grandfather to Hungary in order to spread the light of Chassidus to the masses there.
Prior to his passing, Harav Meir Avraham delivered a surprising order to bury him in nearby Mishkoltz. Only years later did his motive become clear when the local authorities ordered the cemetery in Tchaba razed in order to lay the tracks for the new train. Numbering among his descendants are many gedolei Torah and the most illustrious families in Hungary, among them the Maharsha”g.
Amsterdam, 1716. Shu”t Rabbi Mordechai Ziskind Rottenberg. First edition. [5], 70 leaves. Stains, mostly in margins. Minor professional restorations. New leather binding.
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