Sefer Pri Tzaddik. The Only Printed Work of the Holy Tzaddik Rabbi Meir Avraham of Tshaba!
First Edition. Pressburg, 1839
Very rare
A wonderful commentary on Sefer Bereishis, Sefer Shemos and Pilpulei De’Orayta – "sweet to the tasting palate" in the words of the Chasam Sofer.
It was written by Rabbi Meir Avraham of Tshaba, whose awesome holiness is beyond description, and who was revered by all the great men of his generation.
This sefer is the only remnant of all the teachings of the holy author, that were printed. The title page reads "Part One", but the second part was not printed, which is a great loss.
First edition and very rare.
At the beginning of the sefer are haskamahs from the great tsaddikim: The Chasam Sofer; the Rebbe Baal ‘Yismach Moshe’ of Újhely; Rabbi Dovid Deutsch, Av Bais Din of Nové Mesto nad Váhom; and Rabbi Meir As”h, Av Bais Din of Ungvar.
Pressburg, 1839. First edition.
Page Count: 44 [2] leaves.
Size: 21.2 cm.
Condition: Good; signatures on the title page, stains; new binding.
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The holy tzaddik Rabbi Meir Avraham, Av Bais Din of Tshaba and author of Pri Tzaddik (d. 1829), was an "Ish Elokim", holy and pious (in the words of the Chasam Sofer). He became known as a miracle worker and as having Ruach HaKodesh, and many legends circulated in Hungary about his holiness and righteousness. For twenty years before his death, he abstained from eating anything of animal origin and he studied in a cave alone, day and night. (Shem HaGedolim HaGra"m, 34)
In the name of the Gaon, author of ‘Be’er Shmuel’ of Unsdorf, it is written that he was an "angel" in the form of a man. The author of ‘Yismach Moshe’ referred to him four times as "the tzaddik" in his haskamah to ‘Pri Tzaddik’. When the Rebbe Rav Yoel of Satmar saw the haskamah, he commented that it was not common in the past to write about someone that he was a "tzaddik", and all the more so four times! (Moshi’in Shel Yisrael)
He studied Torah from the Machatzis HaShekel and was a frequent visitor by the Chozeh MiLublin, who, it is commonly accepted, was sent to Hungary to spread the light of Chassidus (as his grandson, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Friedman, Av Bais Din of Tanka, writes).
Before his death, he gave a strange instruction to be buried in nearby Miskolc. Only years later, the reason for this came to light when it became known that the government had ordered the evacuation of the cemetery in Tshaba for the construction of a railway.
Among his many descendants are great Torah scholars and illustrious families from Hungary, including the Gaon Maharshag.
