Sefer Yesod: Kos HaYeshuos by the Maharshashach
First Edition. Frankfurt, 1711
Chiddushim and in-depth analyses on seven masechtos from Seder Nezikin by the Maharshashach, Rabbi Shmuel Schotten HaKohen, Rosh Yeshiva of the renowned Frankfurt Yeshiva. He was one of the greatest Achronim and great grandfather of the Chasam Sofer.
The masechtos are: Bava Kama, Bava Metzia, Bava Basra, Sanhedrin, Makkos, Shevuos and Avodah Zarah.
The Maharshashach relates in his introduction that he studied these seven masechtos in great depth with his talmidim in his yeshiva, who numbered in the thousands.
Kos HaYeshuos is one of the foundational works on these masechtos.
Rabbi Shmuel Schotten HaKohen, known as the Maharshashach (1644-1719), was one of the pillars of Torah in Ashkenaz. He served as Av Beis Din in the large Kloiz (beis medrash) of Frankfurt am Main and for over thirty years taught Torah to thousands of talmidim, many of whom became Rabbanim of communities themselves. He composed his commentary on 12 masechtos of Shas, but of all his Torah on Shas, only this volume was printed.
His great-grandson was the Chasam Sofer, who quotes many times from his great grandfather in his seforim.
This sefer was in the author’s own home, and was miraculously saved from the great fire that occurred in Frankfurt in 1711, which damaged the author’s home along with many others (see below).
Frankfurt am Main, 1711. First Edition.
Printed by the author himself. Page Count: [2], 159 leaves.
Condition: Good, light stains. Anique leather binding, slightly worn. Reinforced spine.
Bibliography: Stefansky Sifrei Yesod, no. 76.
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~ "Wonder of Wonders": The Miraculous Rescue of the Sefer ~
This sefer was miraculously saved from the great fire that raged in Frankfurt in the year of its printing, which burned for an entire day throughout the city and caused enormous damage. In the author’s words, the fire was "truly never before seen or heard of". As a result of the fire, the city’s Av Beis Din, the ‘Semichas Chachamim’, was forced to flee the city, as the fire had started from his house.
At the time of the fire, most of the sefer’s sheets had already been printed and were lying in the author’s house. When the fire approached his house and he was forced to flee, the fire consumed his possessions and caused him great monetary loss, but the sefer’s sheets were miraculously saved, as the author relates in his introduction:
"…and this sefer of mine was still lying inside it [inside the burning house], and I bless Hashem who saved it from the blazing fire, for wonder of wonders, the most extraordinary thing occurred with it after I left my house – people who were not of our nation came and saved it from the fire which had no power over it…"
