Description: 1940 JERUSALEM HEBREW VG CONDITION, HARDCOVER R. Alexander Zusskind b. Moses of Grodno (d. 1793), Lithuanian kabbalist. R. Alexander lived a secluded life in Grodno, never engaging in light conversation so as not to be deterred from study and prayer. Many stories were told about him. According to a well-substantiated one, several days before Passover in 1790, a Jewish victim of a blood libel was sentenced to death unless he agreed to convert. R. Alexander, afraid the condemned man would be unable to withstand the ordeal, obtained permission to visit him in prison, and persuaded him to choose martyrdom. The execution was scheduled for the second day of Shavuot; on that day Alexander left the synagogue in the middle of the service for the place of execution, heard the condemned man recite the prayer of martyrdom, said "Amen," and returned to the synagogue, reciting the memorial prayer for the martyr's soul. The second incident relates that R. Alexander was imprisoned in a German town for soliciting money for the Jews of Erez Israel, as it was illegal to send money out of Germany. On being freed, he immediately resumed collecting, ignoring the danger involved. R. Alexander's most important work, Yesod ve-Shoresh ha-Avodah (Novy Dvor, 1782; corrected edition, Jerusalem, 1959) a book of ethics, touches upon many aspects of Jewish life. It is divided into 12 sections, the final section Sha'ar ha-kolel, concluding with an account of the coming of the Messiah. According to the author, the basis of divine worship is love of G-d and love of the Jewish people. R. Alexander emphasizes that a Jew must be grieved at the contempt in which the G-d of Israel and the people of Israel are held among the Gentiles, who persecute the chosen people and then ask mockingly, "Where is your G-d?" He speaks often and with great sorrow of the desolation of the holy city of Jerusalem and of Erez Israel and extols "the greatness of the virtue of living in the Land of Israel." In R. Alexander's view, the essence of observance is intent (kavvanah); the deed alone, without intention, is meaningless. For this reason, he insisted on clear and meticulous enunciation of each word in prayer, giving many examples of how words are distorted in the course of praying. He also laid down a specific order of study: Talmud, musar, literature, and then Kabbalah. He emphasizes the need for study of the geography of the Bible. R. Alexander was rigid in the matter of religious observance, threatening violators with severe retribution in the hereafter. He asked every Jew to resign himself to "the four forms of capital punishment of the bet din" and in his will he ordered that upon his death his body be subjected to stoning. Yet the central theme of his work is "worship the Lord in joy." His ideas make R. Alexander's writings closely akin to the basic tenets of Hasidism and R. Nahman of Bratslav said of him, "he was a Hasid even before there was Hasidism." In annotated prayer books, especially in those of the Sephardi rite, his Kavvanot ha-Pashtiyyut, the "intent" of the text of the prayers as set forth in the Yesod ve-Shoresh ha-Avodah, is appended to most of the prayers. He was deeply revered and as long as there was a Jewish community in Grodno, men and women went to pray at his grave. Descendants of his family who originally went by the name of Braz (initials for Benei Rabbi Alexander Zusskind) later assumed the name Braudes. We have over 500,000 books of Jewish interest in Stock, please make sure to check out our Our eBay Store Questions, comments, Requests? WE CAN BE REACHED AT 347ll78G492!!14G6508!14 Our storefront location is at Mizrahi Book Store 3108 Quentin Rd Brooklyn NY 11234 Visitors welcome during business hours COMBINED SHIPPING DISCOUNTS: There is $4 off each additional item paid for and shipped together, which makes the shipping just .99 for almost all additional items. Please note that purchases must be paid for at once, not individually to qualify for the discount. If you plan on adding additional items, please hold off payment until done purchasing. This discount should be deducted automatically, please contact us if for some reason it does not. STORE HOURS: Our storefront is located at 3108 Quentin Rd, Brooklyn, NY, 11234. Visitors are welcome during business hours. Store hours are: Sunday-Thursday 10 am - 6:30 pm and Friday 10 am - 2 pm. We are closed on Saturday and Jewish Holidays. For assistance in processing hours, we can be reached at our listed Mizrahi Bookstore phone number. INTERNATIONAL BUYERS: For most individual books, we ship first class mail via USPS. Price is by weight, and this service is tracked. For multiple purchases, we can combine postage manually and charge at cost. Please reach out to us for a quote if interested in shipping multiple items together internationally. RETURN CUSTOMERS: Return customers get 7% off every order, from the second shipment and on. This is not deducted automatically, please message us for a discount code to be able to apply it to the order. REFUNDS: We offer full refunds within 30 days of purchase. QUESTIONS: We are here for you and usually respond immediately, feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have. 1ST EDITIONS: We try to be precise when marking the edition, but if you are looking for first editions only, please ask us to verify the edition before purchasing, to prevent any misunderstandings. First Edition can have multiple definitions unfortunately and best to clarify in advance. WANT LIST: Looking for something and don't see it? Let us know and we'll look out for you. We have an additional hundreds of thousands of books of Jewish interest in stock, that are not listed online. SELL US YOUR BOOKS: We purchase Jewish books and books of Jewish interest, used, rare and antiquarian books and collections. Languages we specialize in are English, Hebrew, Yiddish, German, Spanish, Ladino, Russian and French. We purchase over 200,000 Jewish books a year and will travel to purchase libraries. Please contact us for details DISCLAIMER: The descriptions we use for our books offered, may come from a variety of sources, such as standard reference books, auction catalogs, the Publishers' descriptions, online resources and customer reviews.... If you feel any specific description violated third part rights, please contact us and we will have it removed immediately. Images sell! Get Supersized Images & Free Image Hosting Attention Sellers - Get Templates Image Hosting, Scheduling at Auctiva.com.
Price: 9.99 USD
Location: Brooklyn, New York
End Time: 2024-11-04T15:15:49.000Z
Shipping Cost: 4.99 USD
Product Images
Item Specifics
Restocking Fee: No
Return shipping will be paid by: Buyer
All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
Item must be returned within: 30 Days
Refund will be given as: Money Back
