[Instruction and formulation to countermand instance of Ḥalitsah].
[הוראה וניסוח לביטול מופעות של חליצה].

Format:

Book

Manuscript

Author/Creator:

Adler, Nathan ben Simeon, ha-Kohen, 1741-1800, conceptor.

Contributor:

Barney and Eleanor Frommer Memorial Fund.

Language:

Hebrew

Yiddish

Subjects (All):

Marriage--Annulment (Jewish law).

Marriage.

Levirate--18th century.

Levirate.

Ḥalitsah--18th century.

Ḥalitsah.

Marriage service (Judaism).

Impediments to marriage (Jewish law).

Jewish marriage customs and rites.

Jews--Germany--Frankfurt am Main--18th century--History--Sources.

Jews.

Jews--Germany--Frankfurt am Main--19th century--History--Sources.

Genre:

legal documents.

decisions (judicial records)

Penn Provenance:

Sold by Tiferet Auction House (Jerusalem), Auction 32 (February 10, 2022), lot 7.

Physical Description:

2 leaves : paper ; 350 x 235 (320 x 182) mm.

Place of Publication:

[Forbach?], [1795?-1800?]

[פארבאך?] [1795?-1800?]

Language Note:

Hebrew; final lines of instruction document in Yiddish (f. 1r).

Biography/History:

German Rosh yeshivah and cabalist, possibly the first German Lurianist; he created a Frankfurt am Main yeshivah which was excommunicated about 1779, then left for Boskovice (Moravia) in 1782, returned 1785; prominent students include Abraham Auerbach, Sekel Loeb Wormser, and Moses Schreiber (Ḥatam Sofer).

Summary:

This is a manuscript of a Halakhic legal innovation created by Nathan ben Simeon ha-Kohen Adler of Frankfurt am Main for the purpose of countermanding all possible instances of Ḥalitsah (Biblical law; ceremony in Beth Din for the abrogation of imposed Levirate marriage by a widow; should her husband die and they are without children, she is Biblically bound to a Levirate or Halitsah with her deceased husband's brother; Levirate was abolished by Gershom ben Judah of Mainz for Ashkenazim by excommunication, circa 1000; Shulḥan ʻarukh Even ha-ʻezer 1:10, Isserles ibīdem)), and the motivation for Nathan Adler to countermand Ḥalitsah was likely that the widow would otherwise be prohibited from remarrying Cohanim (the Rabbinical prohibition of חלוצה לכהן), as well as her possibly being prohibited to any marriage if a brother could not be located for the Ḥalitsah, or refuses to grant her Halitsah (יבמה לשוק). The first document is a concise instruction for the marriage ceremony, the selection of an arranger and witnesses, and the legal formulation of the vow, as well as a novel connubial vow to be taken by the groom immediately following the wedding upon entering the marriage chamber (also in the presence of the witnesses); the second document is a formulation for the vow at the time of the couple's engagement; both of these documents explicitly state that the marriage should be retroactively annulled to avoid any possible instance of Ḥalitsah. Adler was alive when the first document was transcribed (f. 1r) but had died at the writing of the second (the legal formulation is dated 5555, 1794-5; f. 2r). Possibly written by Abraham ben Abiezri Selig Auerbach (died 1846), a student of Nathan Adler who committed many of Adler's writings and rulings to manuscript; Auerbach was likely the rabbi in Forbach (France, on the German border, near Saarbrücken) and subsequently Neuwied, Germany.

Contents:

1. f.1r: Teshuvah

2. f.2r: Zeh ha-nusḥa maʻale B[et] D[in].

1. f.1r: תשובה

2. f.2r: זה הנוסחא מעלי ב"ד.

Notes:

Ms. documents.

Title supplied by cataloger.

Foliation: Paper, 2; modern foliation in pencil, 1-2, lower left recto.

Layout: Written in 38 lines (f. 1r) and 34 lines (f. 2r); sentences numbered 1-2 (f. 1r); single marginalia (f. 2r).

Script: Written in an Ashkenazic cursive script; one word vocalized (f. 1r).

Origin: Written possibly in Forbach, France, or Neuwied, Germany, possibly in the hand of Abraham ben Abiezri Selig Auerbach; otherwise, written by a student of Nathan Adler.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Barney and Eleanor Frommer Memorial Fund.

Cited as:

Instruction and formulation to countermand instance of Ḥalitsah. (UPenn CAJS Rar Ms 569). Library at the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania.

OCLC:

1336019820