Discovery!
Collection of letters (1777-1778)
Correspondence between
Talmid of the Zera Shimshon,
and Talmid of the Chida
Correspondence between Disciple of the Zera Shimshon, Rabbi Chananya Elchanan Chai Cohen, and Rabbi Moshe Chaim Soscino of Firenze, Disciple of the Chida
Correspondence between two Italian sages, Rabbi Chananya Elchanan Chai Cohen, Av Beis Din of Firenze and a disciple of
the Zera Shimshon, and Rabbi Moshe Chaim Soscino of Firenze, a disciple of
the Chida.
The present collection of 18 letters, which encompasses both blessings and divrei Torah, includes 8 letters by Rabbi Chananya Elchanan Cohen and 10 by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Soscino.
To the best of Genazym’s knowledge, these letters are unknown and clearly have never been printed.
Rabbi Chananya Elchanan Chai Cohen (1751-1836) was the prime disciple of the saintly kabbliast Rabbi Chaim Shimshon Nachmani, author of Zera Shimshon. In his writings, Rabbi Chananya Elchanan Chai Cohen publicized several poems composed by the Zera Shimshon, always referring to him by the title “mori v’Rabi.” He named his son after the Zera Shimshon. (see title page of his work Chanoch Lana’ar [Venice, 1804]).
Rabbi Chananya was born and raised in Reggio, where the Zera Shimshon served as Rav. There, in his hometown, he taught Torah for many years and established legions of students who would later mature into the spiritual luminaries and Rabbanim of Italy. Rabbi Chananya was a man of many talents, a genius in Torah, an erudite lecturer, a grammarian and poet, as well as a prolific author of sefarim. Most famous among his sefarim are Chanoch Lana’ar and Reishis Lekach, which he wrote to Jewish Italian youth with the goal of guiding them along the path of Torah and fear of Hashem. Most of his sefarim were printed in his personal press which he founded in Reggio.
In the sefer Zecher Tzaddik Livrachah (Toldos Gedolei Yisrael p. 325 [Trieste, 1853]), Rabbi Chananel Nifi, Av Beis Din of Tzinto, relates a miraculous tale that he heard personally from Rabbi Elchanan Chananya about his spiritual mentor, the Zera Shimshon. A fire once broke out in close proximity to the Zera Shimshon home and nearly reached his porch. The Zera Shimshon opened his window and recited a prayer as he was looking at the fire, and the fire immediately retreated and subsided (ibid p. 104).
Rabbi Moshe Chaim Soscino (born 1759), was a dayan in Firenze. He studied Torah from Rabbi Menachem Azarya Padua, Av Beis Din of Firenze. (Both of these pieces of information were revealed only now based on the present manuscript [see leaves 2a, 7a).
Rabbi Moshe Chaim shared a close relationship with the Chida, as related by Rabbi Mattisyahu Nissim Tirani in his sefer Midbar Yachil (Firenze, 1810, leaf 5a). “The miracle of our generation, the light of life, the Chida, does not sway from loving him as a father.”
The Chida sent him several letters as teshuvos, and included several of his chiddushim and teshuvos in his sefarim (i.e. Shu”t Yosef Ometz Ch. 16, 103). Some of his chiddushim were printed in assorted journals, and most remain as manuscripts.
Some of the glosses that appear in sefarim are autographed with his initials “Machsi”.
It appears that these letters were collected by Rabbi Elchanan Chai, since the very first letter is addressed to Rabbi Raphael Chaim Otlingo of Firenze.
Description: Letters are dated 1777-1778.
Page Count: 10 leaves; 20 handwritten sides.
Size: 26×22 cm. Original cardboard binding. Slight tear on the first and last leaf, with no damage to text. Miniscule holes. To the best of Genazym’s knowledge, these letters were never printed.
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