"Cherem Chamur (Severe Ban) – pronounced by the great rabbis of Vilna at the time and with the approval of the Vilna Gaon". Printed sheet with the text of the famous ban against Chassidism, dated Sunday Rosh Chodesh Iyar 1772, by the rabbis and dayanim of Vilna, headed by the Vilna Gaon and R. Shmuel, Rabbi of Vilna. [Without place and name of printer, 19th century?].
"Our Jewish brethren… new things that only recently came… a suspect sect of Chassidim… who form their own groups… therefore the leaders of the people must cloak themselves with zealousness… to destroy, annihilate and raise the cries of bans and curses… and just as we have uprooted them from this place, so may they be uprooted from all places, never to be mentioned again…".
The first ban on the Chassidic movement was issued by the rabbis of Vilna in 1772. It was printed that year in Zmir Aritzim V'Charvot Tzurim (Oleksinets, 1772), signed by the Vilna Gaon and the two Batei Din in Vilna (altogether 18 signees). Here we have an abridged version of the ban, with an interesting change of order of the signatures: whilst in Zmir Aritzim the Vilna Gaon's signature appears on the first line together with that of the rabbi of Vilna, here it only appears on the fifth line of the right column. See Vinograd, Otzar Sifrei HaGra, p. 219. Vinograd listed this item according to the exhibition catalogue: The Gaon of Vilna – The Man and His Legacy, published by Beit HaTfutzot (Tel Aviv, 1998).
Printed sheet, 40 cm. Good condition. Light stains.
This item does not appear in the NLI catalogue.