Pinkas Mattersdorf (Autograph Commentary of the Hatam Sofer on the Haggadah, Shabbat ha-Gadol, and Liturgical Readings for Passover) [Mattersdorf], 1799-1800. Bound with Ma'aleh Beit Horin (a printed Haggadah, Vienna: Anton Schmid, 1823)

Two volumes. Seven folios, (9 1/4 x 7 1/4 in.; 238 x 185 mm), autograph manuscript written in brown ink on paper in Ashkenazic cursive Hebrew script, two columns 32-39 lines; original foliation in ink: vol I, ff. 51-53;vol II, ff. 54-57; each paragraph followed by a dot written above a dash, an idiosyncratic kabbalistic characteristic of the Hatam Sofer’s writing. Lightly soiled and stained. Bound in two volumes; vol. I in modern brown blind panelled morocco, titles gilt on raised central panel; vol. II bound with Ma'aleh Beit Horin (a printed Haggadah, Vienna: Anton Schmid, 1823) 52 ff., quarto, worn and stained, as expected. Modern blind-tooled, panelled and diapered tan morocco; titles gilt on maroon morocco lettering pieces on front board; matching clamshell case. 

Rabbi Moses Sofer (1762–1839), his autograph; and then by descent to his son: Rabbi Simon Sofer (1820–1883); to his son, Rabbi Solomon Alexander Sofer (Schreiber) (1853-1930); to his daughter, Reizel Stern (née Schreiber-d.1957); to her husband, Rabbi Yosef Naftali Stern (1888-1971).

SolomonAlexander Sofer, Hut ha-Meshulash (Munkatch, 1894); Joseph Naphtali Stern, Derashot ha Hatam Sofer (Klausenberg, 1929) and Beit Em (Introductions to) Hatam Sofer al ha-Torah (Jerusalem, 1958-1961).

Ma'aleh Beit Horin, Yudlov 633; Yaari 453

Rabbi Moses Sofer (1762-1839) of Mattersdorf and Pressburg was one of the leading Orthodox rabbis of European Jewry in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. His writings include novellae and sermons as well as his collection of responsa, entitled Hatam Sofer ("Seal of the Scribe"), which is also the appellation by which he is most frequently referred. His works have enjoyed enduring popularity and are still frequently consulted by Orthodox Jews to the present day. His pupils, numbering in the hundreds, would go on to become the leading Orthodox rabbis, not only of Hungary but of European Jewry as well.

Rabbi Moses Sofer’s profound scholarship and leadership, in addition to the qualities of moral character, humanity, humility and justice, which have been imputed to him over the past two hundred years, have conferred an almost mystical reverence on the few surviving relics of his legacy, penned in his own hand. Indeed, his descendants and followers particularly, deem original handwritten material by the Hatam Sofer to be imbued with an ineluctable level of holiness that serves as both a source of metaphysical protection and blessing.

The seven leaves in the present manuscript comprise the Hatam Sofer's commentary on: Shabbat ha-Gadol (the Sabbath immediately preceding the holiday of Passover, and in this instance, Parshat Tzav) (vol I, cols. 1-12); the Passover Haggadah (vol II, cols. 1-12); liturgical biblical readings for Passover (vol II, cols. 12-15); and two pericopes in Leviticus (Shemini and Metzora)(vol II, col. 16). These leaves, numbered 51-57, were formerly part of the larger volume of Torah commentary and related sermonic material (187 ff.) written by the Hatam Sofer between 1799-1802, during his years as Rabbi of Mattersdorf. 

Rabbi Joseph Naftali Stern, editor and publisher of many of the Hatam Sofer’s works and a previous owner of the manuscript, has written that Pinkas Mattersdorf was held in particularly high esteem by the Hatam Sofer’s son Rabbi Simon Sofer (the Mikhtav Sofer), who never let it out of his hands, constantly consulting it in order to receive inspiration. Stern also cites the words of Rabbi Mordecai Benet that gazing at the handwriting of the Hatam Sofer is a “segulah” to help the onlooker gain fear of God.

The Hatam Sofer had a habit in his writings (as seen here) of adding a dot written above a dash after many paragraphs. In his introduction to Derashoth Ha Hatam Sofer, Stern cites the opinion of a kabbalistic scholar that this was likely based upon the words of the Baal Shem Tov (and cited by his grandson in Degel Machaneh Ephraim, Parsha Vayechi), that “one of the secrets of the Torah is based upon the hidden aspects of Menasheh, the dash, and of Ephraim, the dot.”

The manuscript is elegantly bound with a copy of Ma'aleh Beit Horin, a contemporary early nineteenth century haggadah with instructions in Judeo-German, and which includes the commentaries of Alsheikh, Gevurot ha-Shem, Ollelot Ephraim, and a beautiful series of copperplate engravings copied from the Amsterdam 1781 edition. 

Sotheby's is grateful to Professor Yosef Avivi and Rabbi Isaac Isaiah Weiss for providing material which aided in the cataloguing of this manuscript.