A rare copy of the first edition of a halakhic classic.

In his youth, Abraham Danzig (1748-1820) studied in Prague under the great Rabbi Ezekiel Landau (1713-1793). Refusing to earn a living from the rabbinate, he worked as a merchant in Vilna but continued to immerse himself in learning in his free time. His fame rests mainly on two two-part halakhic codes: Sefer hayyei adam with Sefer nishmat adam on the laws of Orah hayyim, and Sefer hokhmat adam with Binat adam on the laws of Yoreh de‘ah (Vilna, 1815-1816). The present lot is a copy of the former work, published anonymously (the second edition would feature its author’s name). In the book’s first part, Danzig masterfully organizes the laws discussed into 151 kelalim (general topics) and ela🌼borates their details in clear, lucid fashion. The second part then explains the ꦿreasons for Danzig’s rulings with recourse to classical rabbinic sources.

Danzig would go on to publish a second, extensively revised edition of this work in 1819 in Grodno-Vilna, having changed some of his rulings in the interim. The most significant addition to the second printing was its inclusion of tefillah zakkah, a confessional prayer recited by many on the eve of Yom Kippur that Danzig claimed to have copied from “early books” and that would subsequently be reprinted numerous times. One interesting feature of the present edition of Sefer hayyei adam is a description on f. 68v of the destruction caused by an explosion of magnesium powder in Danzig’s courtyard on the night of 16 Kislev 5564 (November 30, 1803), with a list of the thirty-one people killed by the blast. Danzig’s family observed a “private Purim,” referred to as Pulverpurim (powder Puri🦄m), in celebration of their miraculous survival.

Sefer hayyei adam achieved enormous popularity and has been reissued well over a hundred times. Some prewar European communities established🃏 Hayyei Adam Societies that would regularly meet to study the code.