Beit HaOtzar, Part 1. Halachic rules and systems according to alphabetical order. Rabbi Yosef Engel of Bendin. Pyetrykaw, 1903. First edition.
Several stamps of the author, Rabbi "Yosef Engel Bendin" and two handwritten glosses [the author's?]. At the beginning of the title page is a self-dedication by his friend Rabbi David of Sochaczew, who writes in his own handwriting: "G-d granted me this gift from the author…" and his stamp "David of Sochaczew – Bernstein – here in Wyszogród".
The renowned Rabbi Yosef Engel (1859-1920), a leading rabbi in Poland and Galicia. Born in Tarnów, he lived in Bendin and from 1906 served as Ra'avad of Krakow. He wrote dozens of works which are still considered as basic works of Torah study [also in Lithuanian Yeshivot. It is said that Rabbi Eliezer Gordon offered him the position of Rosh Yeshiva in Telz]. Out of his writings, approximately ten books were printed in his lifetime, and another ten after his death. While escaping the Holocaust, his grandson Rabbi David Morgenstern of Kotzk took with him about one hundred volumes of his grandfather's manuscripts in Halacha and Aggada prepared for printing, but was forced to abandon them along the way.
Rabbi David Bernstein, the Chasdei David was born in 1876 in Nasielsk to his father, the author of Shem MiShmuel, son of the Avnei Nezer of Sochaczew. At the age of 20, he was appointed Rabbi of Wyszogród where he headed the Yeshiva Gedolah for young men. After World War I, he moved to serve in the rabbinate of Tomaszów and Zagórz. After the death of his father in 1926, he was ordained Rebbe and was one of the leading Rebbes in Poland. He died in the Warsaw Ghetto in Kislev, 1942. All his descendants perished in the Holocaust. His many books and most of his writings on Talmudic treatises in Halacha and Aggada were lost in the travails of those times.
[2], 126 leaves. 32 cm. Brittle paper. Fair condition, wear and minor tears, wormholes. Original binding, worn and restored with fabric glue.