Personal Siddur and Tehillim used by the Gaon Rabbi Nathan Tzvi Finkel

Personal Siddur and Tehillim used by the Gaon Rabbi Nathan Tzvi Finkel

"Whoever has someone ill should seek out the rabbi who maintains the yeshivah to bless him" (The earliest source for prayers by tzaddikim)

Personal siddur by the person who exerted himself most for Torah, the leading Torah teacher of the previous generation, the sacred gaon Rabbi Nathan Tzvi Finkel, rosh yeshivah of Mir, who with superhuman strength, increased the yeshivah to the point that it became the largest one in Israel - from his sickbed. Owner's notation in his hand on the flyleaf, shaking from Parkinson's disease: 'B"H, from the library of Nathan Tzvi Finkel.'

With this sacred siddur, Rabbi Nathan Tzvi would pour out his heart with his famous prayers, only his lips moving, his voice unheard, tears streaming unceasingly from both his eyes - and by which he would enact salvations for his tens of thousands (!) of disciples - for their spouses, recovery and livelihood. The pages in this siddur constitute a real-life example of the common expression 'the siddur is soaked with tears, ' as each and every leaf attests that it was used to the depths of his soul.

As is known, Rabbi Nathan Tzvi had to raise an astronomic amount of funds every year - tens and even hundreds of millions of shekels, to maintain the Torah empire that he established, despite his unbearable health condition, as he struggled with Parkinson's disease. The disease robbed him of his power to walk and his stability to the extent that he would shake uncontrollably and unceasingly in his entire body, yet he would travel the entire world to collect funds from Jewish tycoons to support the Mir yeshivah. Sometimes when he entered the donor's office he could not even utter a single word due to his weakness, and would just sit in front of the donor and look at him with his sacred eyes. Sometimes a tear would flow from his pure eyes, telling the donor about the yeshivah's financial situation, and even more so, about the rosh yeshivah's state of health. He was supposed to be lying on his sickbed in total rest at the time, and instead he was compelled to experience unfathomable physical agony, to be tossed among continents and countries to collect money to maintain the students and avreichim in the yeshivah. The donors, many of whom were his disciples and many more who sent their sons to study at his yeshivah, would also repay him according to his lofty value and would donate huge sums for the benefit of supporting the yeshivah, thus establishing the empire known as 'Yeshivat Mir.' The yeshivah maintained about ten thousand students constantly engaged in Torah and its many buildings in the Beit Yisrael neighborhood of Jerusalem.

And indeed, it is so thrilling to see the rosh yeshivah's sacred tearstains precisely on those prayers by which one requests sustenance, such as in Parshat Hamann and Birkat HaMazon, where the pages are simply 'soaked in the sacred tears' of Rabbi Nathan Tzvi. For himself, Rabbi Nathan Tzvi did not need anything beyond bread and salt, and he left no inheritance to his descendants other than massive debts - that his loved ones covered after his passing. He would shed his tears during the prayers for the sustenance of his precious students who were diligent in their study in the yeshivah halls so that he could continue to maintain the mother of yeshivahs. How great is the privilege and what power and segulah lies in reading these sacred and capable sustenance prayers from the siddur that the great rosh yeshivah used when he prayed and recited them - he who literally gave his life for the Torah and its students.

Refer to the Hebrew catalog text for a brief biography of the gaon Rabbi Nathan Tzvi Finkel.

Not many know it, but the source of the custom to ask a tzaddik to pray on his behalf specifically refers to a rosh yeshivah! (Although it does sound like a Chassidic concept.) As stated in Bava Batra (116a): "Rabbi Pinchas bar Chammah said that one who has an ill person in his family should go to a sage to ask for mercy, as it says, "The King's wrath is as the angels of death, but a wise man will appease it." In the Nimukei Yosef's elucidations (ibid, 53a on the Ri"f's pages) he added that the custom in France was that "whoever had someone ill would seek out the rabbi who maintained a yeshivah to bless him."

Specification: Siddur HaShalem, Ashkenaz text, "Including all the prayers and supplications as arranged; Tehillim and Ma'amadot, Tel-Aviv Jaffa, Without a year of print. [10], 704 pp. 12 cm. Pocket edition with a jacket cover, to be easily held by his afflicted hands.

Fine condition. Not lacking any leaves. Many usage marks, occasionally to the extent that a leaf is torn out, and a great number of tearstains.