Beschreibung:

Sefer HaAroch MiShach Part II, on Tur Yoreh De'ah (Simanim 112-189), by R. Shabtai Katz, the Shach. Four unopened gatherings (32 pages) of a book whose printing was never fully executed, apparently from one of the Hungarian-Transylvanian presses. [Grosswardein?, ca. 1920s-1940s?]. These sheets were discovered by us, inserted at the end of a volume of Part I of the Sefer HaAroch MiShach on Tur Yoreh De'ah (Simanim 1-110), Vienna, 1809 (Second edition). They contain part II of HaAroch MiShach, which is considered a "lost work". Sefer HaAroch MiShach is a work by the Ba'al HaShach on Tur Yoreh De'ah. The Shach began this work prior to writing Siftei Cohen on the Shulchan Aruch Yoreh De'ah. Part I of this work was first printed in Berlin in 1767 by the author of Minchat Aharon (Aharon MiGeza Zvi, the grandson of the daughter of the Shach), who added his own novellae within the book. Several more editions of it were published subsequently (Vienna 1809, Russia-Poland ca. 1820), and many editions of Arba'a Turim added the work at the end of Part I of Yoreh De'ah. Part II of the work was not published at that time, and it is considered a "lost work". Inspection of bibliographical listings and library catalogues did not uncover any indication of an actual printing of Part II. From what is known, the manuscript of Part II was inherited by the son of the author of Minchat Aharon, R. Eliezer of Schwabach, who wrote the Chidushei Bnei Aharon. From there the manuscript was passed down to his descendants - the Berlinger and Levi families. Since the Holocaust of European Jewry all traces of the manuscript disappeared; in all likelihood it was lost in the Holocaust. The first reference to the existence of a manuscript of Part II appeared in an 1867 article in the weekly Der Israelit (1867, No. 51, December 18, p. 885), which stated that the manuscript was held by R. Naftali Hirsch Berlinger (a family member of the descendants of the Shach and of the Minchat Aharon who published Part I), who is interested in publishing it. Then the manuscript was passed on to R. Shimon (Sandor) Levi from Fürth, who was the husband of R. Naftali Hirsch Berlinger's granddaughter. In 1907, R. Shimon Levi published the novellae of R. Eliezer of Schwabach in the Chidushei Bnei Aharon (Munkács, 1907). The publisher states in his introduction that he hopes to bring to print additional works in his possession, that have never before been published, "in particular Aroch MiShach Part II by the Ba'al HaShach - because they have not yet seen the light of print". The book "Megillath Mishpachtenu - Records concerning the ancestry of the Levi, Berlinger and Ellinger families of the Zvi branch" (Izhak Risch, published by the author, Haifa 1974, p. 29), describes the travails of the manuscript until the Holocaust, and indicates that the book has never been published - stating the following: "One manuscript penned by the Shach was inherited by the Berlinger family, but was apparently lost in the Holocaust... Part II of that book was passed on to R. Naftali Hirsch Berlinger. The weekly 'Der Israelit', in the article mentioned above, called out to the public (in 1867) to assist the holder of the manuscript R. Naftali Hirsch in publishing Part II of the Aroch MiShach... The manuscript then came into the possession of R. Shimon Sandor Levi, the husband of Kresla, daughter of R. Eliezer, who was the son of R. Naftali Hirsch... R. Shimon Sandor Levi did not ultimately publish the Aroch MiShach Part II. He passed away in Fürth in 1933, 10 years after his wife Kresla. From that point the manuscript was held by Hermina, R. Shimon Sandor's second wife. Torah-learned family members petitioned to be given the manuscript, in order to carry out the wish of their patriarch, the Shach. This transpired shortly before the Holocaust. From then on, nothing is known of the Aroch MiShach Part II manuscript...". R. Shlomo Englard (the Radziner Rebbe) writes of this in the Yeshurun anthology (Volume 13