Portrait of Rabbi Yitzchak Seckel Aryeh Loeb Wormser (Zekil Loeb Wormser) - the Ba'al Shem of Michelstadt. Pencil/graphite on paper, [Germany? second half of the 19th century].
A fine portrait, hand drawn on paper. Below the portrait appears the Hebrew inscription: "…face of…Zekil Leib of Michelstadt" (handwritten).
Rabbi Zekil Loeb Wormser (1768-1847), of the Luria Ashkenazi family, was the descendant of the Maharshal and the Arizal. According to the legend he was born following a revelation of Elijah that his father experienced. As a young child he was renowned as a genius, studying with his father and
in his town. Founded a Yeshivah which he headed in Michelstadt. He was often approached with requests for prayers by the foremost rabbis of his generation, amongst them the Hatam Sofer and Chidushei Harim. On Rosh Hashanah 1847 he prepared his disciples for his death, and died on the following day, the Fast of Gedalya. In 1940 the Nazis destroyed his tombstone and in 1947 his great-grandson, Peretz Dreyfus, rebuilt it.
Length: 31.5 cm, width: 25 cm. Fair-poor condition. Tears and holes, stains and folding marks.