(BIBLE, Hebrew. PENTATEUCH, HAPHTAROTH & MEGILOTH). Chamishah Chumshei Torah. Hebrew with Targum Onkelos on facing pages and commentary by Rashi below.

(ANGLO-JUDAICA)

Solomon Proops

Amsterdam

1734

Divisional title. On f.1v. inscription: ”This Bible was a gift to my departed son, the Gaon Saul, from my father. I took it from him many years ago, and now present it as a gift to the son-in-law of my son the Gaon of blessed memory, R. Abraham of Jessnitz. Berlin, Friday, Nasso, 14 Sivan, [5]558 [1798]. Zevi Hirsch…”

Vinograd, Amsterdam 1425

copy presented by rabbi aryeh leib, chief aschkenazic rabbi of amsterdam (1691-1755) to his grandson rabbi saul levin of frankfort-on-the-oder (1740-1794). Later Rabbi Zevi Hirsch Levin of Berlin (1721-1800), father of Saul, presented it to his grandson-in-law Rabbi Abraham Halevi of Jessnitz. For details concerning Rabbi Aryeh Leib, a son-in-law of the Chacham Zevi (Zevi Hirsch Aschkenazi), and a genealogy of the Löwenstam (the surname adopted by Rabbi Aryeh Leib's son) and Levin families, see M. H. Gans, Memorbook, pp. 164, 197. What one can glean from the inscription is Rabbi Zevi Hirsch's veneration of his deceased son Saul, despite the latter's involvement with the Haskalah movement and his forging of a collection of medieval responsa, “Besamim Rosh.”