HaOrev - Polemics Regarding the Prague Rabbinate after the Passing of the "Noda B'Yehuda"

HaOrev - Polemics Regarding the Prague Rabbinate after the Passing of the "Noda B'Yehuda"
HaOrev. Polemics against R. Shmuel Landau, son of the "Noda B'Yehuda". "Salonika" [Vienna?, 1795].
"Kivrot HaTa'ava" pamphlet, "Plugta D'Shmuel" pamphlet - with the responsum of R. Shmuel Landau, and "Tiuvta D'Shmuel" pamphlet - responsum from R. Baruch Jeitteles of Prague. The name of the author as well as the place of publication were forged by the author, who signed himself as an Italian scholar named "Pinchas Chananyahu Argosi Di Silva", who claimed to have brought the letters from Prague to Italy, where he added comments titled "Et Mahir". In reality, the author was R. Baruch Jeitteles of Prague, author of "Taam HaMelech".
The polemics were regarding two dayanim (rabbinical judges) in Prague, R. Michael Bachrach and R. Yaakov Ginzburg, who opened a beit din in opposition to the beit din of R. Shmuel Landau. The new beit din was situated in the beit medrash endowed by the grant of the philanthropist R. Shimon Koh. R. Shmuel Landau claimed that the new beit din was opened in opposition to the terms of the grant (R. Shmuel's entire letter is printed in "Me'asef", VII, 1794, first notebook for the year 1794).
R. Shmuel Halevi Segal Landau (ca. 1750-1834, possibly 1837), was the son and successor of R. Yechezkel Landau, author of the Noda B'Yehuda and famed rabbi of Prague. His responsa and Torah novellae were printed in his father's work, the Noda B'Yehuda, as well as in his own Sefer Shivat Zion. He served as dayan in Prague during his father's lifetime, and headed the large yeshiva in the city. After his father's passing he was not appointed as rabbi of the city due to various controversies among the city's leaders who did not wish to accept the will of the Noda B'Yehuda. Nevertheless, R. Shmuel was accepted as a Torah leader both in his own city, (which was recognized as one of the major Torah centers in Europe), and throughout the Diaspora. R. Shmuel fought strenuously against the encroachment of the Reform movement as well as against the followers of Jacob Frank, and at one point was even imprisoned for his activities against the Frankists. He corresponded with the Chatam Sofer, who held him in the greatest esteem [see Responsa Chatam Sofer, VIII, section 65, where he states that only twice did he retract an Halachic decision, once upon receiving the opinion of R. Efraim Zalman Margolies, and the second time when he agreed with R. Shmuel Landau regarding the proper method of writing names on a bill of Jewish divorce].
20 leaves. 21.5 cm. Thick, high-quality paper. Good-fair condition. Stains and wear. Worming. New Bristol paper cover. Ownership inscription on the title page: "Belongs to R. Avraham", and stamp of "Dr. I. Perles, Rabbiner" (rabbi of Munich, 1871-1894).
According to the bibliographer S. Weiner (Kehillat Moshe, I, p. 66, no. 523), "Pinchas Chananyahu Argosi" is a pseudonym for R. Baruch Jeitteles. The author of Yodea Sefer (p. 18) claims that the author is R. Shaul Hirschell Levin-Berlin (see: R. Margaliot, Bibliographic Issues, Areshet, I, 1959, p. 419; M.S. Samet, Kiryat Sefer, 47, 1972, pp. 277-278). However, R. Baruch Jeitteles himself divulged his authorship in his work "Taam HaMelech" (Brno, 1801), where he writes, "See Sefer HaOrev, where I wrote…".