Lot 173
Addenda to the Article "The History of the Etz Chaim Yeshiva" – Draft Handwritten by Micha Josef Berdyczewski – One of Berdyczewski's First Works
"Addenda (to my article the History of the Etz Chaim Yeshiva)", a draft handwritten by Micha Josef Berdyczewski (signed at the end). [Ca. 1886].
Three handwritten pages – addenda to the article "The History of the Etz Chaim Yeshiva" (The Volozhin Yeshiva), the first article written by writer and scholar Micha Josef Berdyczewski. The article and its addenda were published together in 1886 in the literary almanac "HeAsif LeToldot HaShana" edited by Nahum Sokolow.
The article was written by Berdyczewski near the end of his studies at the Volozhin Yeshiva, and his admiration for the Yeshiva and its rabbis is evident in it. In these addenda Berdichevsky adds to his article several additional paragraphs dealing with the personality and doctrine of Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin, the founder of the Etz Chaim Yeshiva, as well as with the image of the Yeshiva and its method of study. In addition, Berdichevsky copies a letter he had received from his rabbi, the Natziv of Volozhin (Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin, 1816-1883, who headed the Volozhin Yeshiva after the death of his father-in-law Rabbi Yitzchak son of Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin), containing the epitaph on the gravestone of Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin. In this letter, the Natziv calls Berdyczewski "The honored rabbi, grand and sharp, complete and learned…".
Micha Josef Berdyczewski (Berdichevsky; 1865-1921), a writer and scholar, of the most important Hebrew writers in the Revival (Tehiyah) period. Berdyczewski was born in Medzhybizh to a family of Hassidic rabbis. In 1882, he married for the first time, yet was forced to divorce his wife after being caught reading the "forbidden literature" of the Jewish Enlightenment Movement and gradually began deserting the religious way of life. Following a request by Nahum Sokolow, the editor of "HaTzfirah", he started publishing his first articles and in 1890 he moved to the contemporary center of Hebrew literature – Odessa.
In subsequent years he studied in German universities, discovered European philosophy and literature and increasingly devoted himself to his writing. His work reached its peak shortly before his death, with the publication of his most well-known works: "Miriam", "BeSeter Ra'am" (In the Secret of Thunder), "Bayit Tivneh" (You Shall Build a House) and other stories. In 1920, Berdyczewski heard that his father and brother were murdered in pogroms in Ukraine and that his childhood and youth towns were destroyed during the riots. This information caused his health to deteriorate and he died in Berlin in November 1921. Chaim Nachman Bialik described his work as "the deep and inner center of the generation's thought and feelings".
[1] folded leaf (3 written pages), approx. 21 cm. Good condition. Stains. Fold lines. A few creases. Tears along edges and fold lines.
