UncategorizedContemporary Era
שני פנקסי מילה של רבי בנימין וואלף טעבין, פרנס ומנהיג קהילת פרשבורג - תק"ח-תקס"ג - עם תיעוד ברית המילה של רבי עקיבא איגר
שני פנקסי מילה של רבי בנימין וואלף טעבין, פרנס ומנהיג קהילת פרשבורג - תק"ח-תקס"ג - עם תיעוד ברית המילה של רבי עקיבא איגר
Two handwritten circumcision registers (pinkasei milah) of the mohel Rabbi Binyamin Wolf Tebin, among the leaders and administrators of the Pressburg community, in which he documented more than one thousand two hundred circumcisions he performed over approximately fifty-five years, from the year 5508 to the year 5563 (1748–1803).
The registers contain thousands of names and important details concerning hundreds of members of the distinguished families of Pressburg and the important Jewish communities of the region — Kittsee, Eisenstadt, Vienna, and Kittsee — including documentation of the circumcision of the Gaon Rabbeinu Akiva Eger.
The first register contains documentation of 613 circumcisions performed by Rabbi Binyamin Wolf Tebin. It opens with the first circumcision he performed on the 9th of Tammuz 5508 (1748): "Today, Friday, Erev Shabbat Kodesh… 5508… I began this mitzvah of being a mohel… May God strengthen and fortify my hands to multiply and bring His sons under the wings of the Shekhinah, Amen." The last circumcision in the register is from the 3rd day of Hanukkah 5539 (1779), and Rabbi Binyamin Wolf closes with a lengthy entry, with prayer and thanksgiving for "having merited completing the count of 613, corresponding to the number of positive and negative commandments [taryag mitzvot]… and may this be accounted to me as though I had offered before You upon Your altar this number of sacrifices, and may they advocate for me when the day of my reckoning arrives…." At the end of the entry he records his date of birth: "Completed on a propitious note, Wednesday, the 3rd of Hanukkah 5539, in the month in which I was born, on a good omen, in the year 5493."
The second register opens with a circumcision performed by Rabbi Binyamin Wolf on the 3rd of the Tenth of Tevet 5539 (1779) for his grandson: "God granted me the merit to begin a new count with my daughter's son, born to me on a good omen, and I was the sandak and mohel…." It concludes on the 20th of Adar 5563 (1803). In the middle of the register (circumcision 409), Rabbi Binyamin Wolf writes: "Thursday, the 28th of Adar, after God raised me from a grave illness that weighed heavily upon me, I merited to resume this mitzvah as before, to be sandak and mohel…." This register too documents 613 circumcisions, followed by a lengthy signature by Rabbi Binyamin Wolf giving thanks to God for having merited "completing the second count of 613 Hebrew children circumcised by me with His help, and I hope in God's kindness that these shall join with those of the first count of 613… and they shall advocate for me…." He goes on to write that he labored and toiled "fifty-five years in this mitzvah" [from this, and from the date of birth he recorded in the previous register, it emerges that he began to perform circumcisions at the age of 15!]. Following this passage is the beginning of a third count — a single entry recording a circumcision and sandakanut on Rosh Hodesh Nisan of that same year.
Rabbi Binyamin Wolf performed the circumcisions primarily in his home city of Pressburg, but also in the important communities of the region, such as nearby Kittsee, Eisenstadt, and Vienna. Some of the circumcisions were carried out jointly with various individuals, in keeping with the custom of former times of dividing the mitzvah between two mohalim: one performing the milah (incision) and the other the periah. Among the individuals recorded as partners in the mitzvah were: "the Rabbi, the Gaon, the Av Beit Din of our congregation" — none other than the Gaon Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Landau (Rabbi Yitzhak of Dukla), author of Amarot Tehorot and Me'inei HaYeshuah, who served as Av Beit Din of Pressburg at that time (in the first register, circumcisions 185, 223, 228, 230); the Gaon Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Broda, Av Beit Din of Kittsee, author of Eretz Tzvi and Ta'umei Tzivyah (in the second register, circumcisions 511, 572); Rabbi Hirsch Lemberg (a dayan in Pressburg and Rabbi Binyamin Wolf's brother-in-law). Additional mohalim: R. Kalman Stampi, R. Kapil Ohu, R. Hirsch Pflauhn, R. Moshe Triebsch, and R. Eizik Raab (most of them well-known figures in Pressburg; see the index of names in the book Avnei Beit HaYotzer).
In the first register, a unique discovery was made — the record of the circumcision of the renowned Gaon Rabbi Akiva Eger in the year 5522. In circumcision no. 221 it is written: "Friday, Erev Shabbat Kodesh, the 9th of Marcheshvan, I was the mohel alone for the child Akiva, son of the distinguished Torah scholar R. Moshe Ginz." This entry yields new details concerning the biography of the Gaon Rabbi Akiva Eger: a. The circumcision of Rabbi Akiva Eger did not take place in Eisenstadt — the city where his parents resided — but in Pressburg, where his maternal grandparents lived (for otherwise Rabbi Binyamin Wolf would have noted that the circumcision took place in Eisenstadt, as he did when he performed a circumcision in another city), and it appears likely that his birth also occurred in Pressburg itself. b. On the wimpel made by Rabbi Akiva Eger's mother in honor of his circumcision, his date of birth is given as Thursday, Rosh Hodesh Cheshvan 5522. According to this, the eighth day fell on the 8th of Cheshvan rather than the 9th as recorded in the register, suggesting either that this was a delayed circumcision, or that he was born on Thursday at twilight.
The following year Rabbi Binyamin Wolf records (circumcision 233) the circumcision of "the child Shmuel, son of the distinguished Torah scholar R. Moshe Ginz" — Rabbi Akiva Eger's brother.
In addition, the register records other children circumcised by Rabbi Binyamin Wolf who later became prominent Torah sages, including Rabbi Avraham Litsh Segel Rosenbaum, a disciple of the Maharam Banet and the Hatam Sofer, author of Responsa Ben Yehudah (see: Ishim BeTeshuvot HaChatam Sofer, p. 28; in Register B, circumcision 606); Rabbi Mordechai Leib Lashbrin, a disciple of the Maharam Banet, Av Beit Din of Zsámbokrét (see: Ishim BeTeshuvot HaChatam Sofer, p. 275; in Register A, circumcision 569); sons of great Torah luminaries, such as the sons of Rabbi Mordechai Task, Rav Av Beit Din of Pressburg (circumcisions 287, 478, 506, 611), sons of Rabbi Daniel Prustitz, who also served as Rav Av Beit Din of Pressburg (circumcisions 521, 582), and the child Tzvi Hirsch son of the Gaon Rabbi Yaakov Kapil Altkünstadt, Av Beit Din of Karlburg (circumcision 603); and sons of the distinguished leaders and administrators of the Pressburg community.
At the end of the second register are two interesting historical accounts, signed by Rabbi Binyamin Wolf Tebin. In the first, Rabbi Binyamin Wolf describes the decree of Emperor Franz Joseph II in the year 5543 (1783), "that the Jews residing in this land are obligated to shave their beards… and this decree was sent to all the Komidater in this land, and they were jubilant and rejoicing at the arrival of the appointed day…." Rabbi Binyamin Wolf relates his participation in a special delegation that traveled to Vienna to meet with the Emperor in order to attempt to annul the decree. He describes the meeting with the Emperor on the seventh day of Passover, as they stood before him "with weeping and supplication, and he was filled with compassion for us," and quotes the Emperor's words (in German, in Hebrew letters).
In the second account, Rabbi Binyamin Wolf relates a miraculous story that occurred at the time of Birkat HaHamah (the blessing of the sun, recited once every 28 years) in the city of Pressburg, in the month of Nisan 5545. At the appointed time the ground was snow-covered and the sky was filled with clouds and the sun was not visible, "and there was a doubtful question of law as to whether, if the sun should not be seen on that day, one should recite the blessing"; but the Gaon Rabbi Meir Barbi, Av Beit Din of Pressburg, commanded the entire congregation to rise early the following day and come to "the Great Synagogue," and after the prayer they would go out together to bless the sun "in great assemblies and with a multitude of people" and not in separate groups. The next day, miraculously, precisely at the appointed hour, the sun suddenly shone forth after several overcast days. The congregation recited the blessing of the sun, and again the sun disappeared in the days that followed.
The author of the registers, the administrator and leader of the Pressburg community, Rabbi Binyamin Wolf Tebin, was born in the year 5493 (1732, as emerges from his own testimony in the register before us) into a distinguished and long-established family in Pressburg whose members served as leaders and administrators of the community. He was the father-in-law of the Noda BiYehudah. He was renowned for his righteousness and was particularly meticulous in the mitzvah of circumcision. He was a generous supporter of Torah and a philanthropist. Through his advocacy activities on behalf of the Jews of Austria-Hungary, he succeeded on several occasions in annulling decrees issued against the Jews (as exemplified by the story recorded at the end of the second register concerning the decree of shaving the beard). Following the death of Rabbi Meir Barbi, Av Beit Din of Pressburg, he was appointed by the latter's will as trustee of his estate, and published the novellae of the Maharam Barbi, Part II (Prague, 5553). He passed away in the year 5569 (1809), and at his passing was eulogized by the Hatam Sofer, who wrote of him: "a tzaddik renowned for praise, a leader of the community for many years."
The circumcision registers before us were in the possession of Rabbi Yitzhak Weiss, Av Beit Din of Verbó, who drew extensive material from them for the history of the community in his book Avnei Beit HaYotzer (Paks, 5660; see there, chapter 57).
Two registers. Register A: [58] leaves. 14 cm. Gilt page edges. Original decorated leather binding. Register B: [59] leaves. 15 cm. Gilt page edges. Original decorated leather binding. With an embossed ownership inscription: "This belongs to the distinguished leader, our honored master and teacher R. Wolf Tebin, may his Rock and Redeemer preserve him, made on Rosh Hodesh Tevet 5539 here in Pressburg." General condition of both registers: good. Stains, light wear. Damage and wear to the bindings.
