Silver Chanukah menorah!
Original base and candelabra owned and used by the saintly tzaddik, the Admor Rabbi Avraham Dov of Avritch, author of Bas Ayin.
Eight cups rest on a 23 cm base, surrounded by an ornamental border and supported on six legs.
The survival and existence of the Bas Ayin’s Menorah is well known amongst chassidim, evidence of this menorah belonging to the Bas Ayin is provided through a signed and detailed letter of provenance by the Tzaddik Rabbi Yehuda of Slonim, only son of the holy Admor Rabbi Mordchai Chaim (Mottel) Kastelanitz of Slonim. The letter relates information that Rabbi Yehuda received regarding the Menorah’s whereabouts in the last 170 years.
The Menorah’s Distinguished Provenance
1. The Menorah was inherited by Rabbi Yisrael Leib Avritcher of Tzfas, a great-nephew of the the Admor Bas Ayin, (who passed away without any sons). Rabbi Yisrael Leib published the first edition of his great-uncle’s popular sefer Bas Ayin (Jerusalem, 1847).
2. With his passing, Rabbi Yisrael Leib bequeathed the Menorah to two of his sons. Since both of the sons desired a part of this sacred item, they agreed to divide it into two, with Rabbi Mottel receiving the candelabra part (base and candles) and Rabbi Avraham Dov receiving the silver back. (Subsequently, each of the heirs hired a silversmith to fashion the missing half.)
3. Following Rabbi Mottel’s passing, the Menorah passed to his son Rabbi Velvel Avritcher of Tzfas.
4. Rabbi Velvel bequeathed the Menorah as a gift during his lifetime to his eldest daughter, Maras Toiba Rochel, who bequeathed it in her lifetime to her son, Mr. Yitzchak Kalman Reches of Australia-Haifa, who corroborates the above testimony and history.
The above was all delivered as testimony and autographed by Rabbi Yehuda of Slonim, only son of the Admor Rabbi Mordchai Chaim (Mottel) Kastelanitz of Slonim.
A handwritten notarized testimony was likewise inscribed and signed by Mr. Yitzchak Kalman Reches affirming the authenticity of the above.
5 . Sold to Rabbi Aharon Moshe Schwartz zt”l of Jerusalem.
The Admor Rabbi Avraham Dov of Avritch (1765-12 Kislev, 1841) was one of the exalted Chassidic Admorim and legendary figures in the era of the second-generation disciples of the Maggid of Mezritch. Rabbi Avrham Dov was the prime disciple of the Admor Rabbi Menachem Nachum of Chernobyl and the son-in-law and successor of Rabbi Nosson Nutta of Avritch, who studied directly under the Baal Shem Tov.
Toward the end of 1830, Rabbi Avraham Dov embarked on a journey to the Holy Land and settled in Tzfas where he stood at the forefront of the Chassidic Yishuv in Eretz Yisrael and supported its members during the hardest of times. During the notorious earthquake in Tzfas which felled thousands, anyone who was standing in close proximity to the Bas Ayin in shul was miraculously spared death. Several years later, when plague broke out in the holy city of Tzfas, and countless perished., the Bas Ayin vowed that the plague would cease immediately upon his death,
which is what indeed occurred.
which is what indeed occurred.
“Following the Bas Ayin’s passing in 1841, the Admor Rabbi Aharon of Chernobyl sent a letter to the Bas Ayin’s heirs requesting an item that the Bas Ayin had once used. He received a garment that the Bas Ayin has worn. He then summoned a tailor to alter the garment and fit it to his size. He then took all the remnants of fabric that the tailor had cut and instructed to bury them in Genizah…” Such was the value and sanctity he assigned to the Bas Ayin.
(Rabbi Mottel Slonimer, Maamar Mordechai – Stories p. 166 #21)
“It was the custom of tzaddikim, our masters and forefathers to esteem the vessels and belongings used by tzaddikim, and many tzaddikim and chassidim paid fortunes in order to obtain items as these…
As an item used by a tzaddik draws good fortune to the owner” (Divrei Torah Me’hagaon Hakadosh MiMunkacs, First Edition, #23)
Rabbi Avraham Dov of Avritch’s sefer Bas Ayin is one of the foundational Chassidic sefarim, and it is said that learning it is auspicious for personal salvation. Some attribute this miraculous phenomenon to the fact that the name בת עין is an acronym for י’שראל נ’ושע ב’ה’ ת’שועת ע’ולמים, Yisrael is saved by Hashem with an eternal salvation
The Bas Ayin’s Sacred Teachings about Chanukah
In his sefer Bas Ayin, in the section of Parshas Vayeshev and Chanukah, the Admor Rabbi Avraham Dov of Avritch writes prolifically regarding the sanctity and exalted attributes of the days of Chanukah. In the course of his writings, he describes that the lights of the Chanukah candles empower a Jew to achieve wondrous spiritual attainments and draw upon himself the 13 Attributes of Compassion and G-dly light.
