Sefer Bas Ayin
First Edition
Jerusalem, 1847
Chiddushei Torah and drashos on the weekly Torah portions in the spirit of Chassidus and Kabbalah, delivered each Shabbos “with the ruach hakodesh that rested upon him from above” by Rabbi Avraham Dov of Ovritch, whose resting place is in Tzfas.
His holy sefer Bas Ayin is a foundational sefer of Chassidus, and learning from it is known to bring salvation, as hinted by the acronym "Bas Ayin" – Yisrael Nosha B’Hashem Tishuas Olamim (in Hashem lies eternal salvation for Yisrael).
Rabbi Avraham Dov of Ovritch (1765 – 1841) was a towering figure among the tzaddikim of the Chassidic world in the generation of the disciples of the disciples of the Maggid of Mezeritch. He was a prime talmid of Rabbi Menachem Nachum of Chernobyl, and the son-in-law of Rabbi Nosson Neta of Ovritch, a disciple of the Baal Shem Tov and succeeded him in the rabbinate. In 1830, he moved to Tzfas, where he led the Chassidic community with unwavering devotion during in its difficult times.
During the great earthquake in Tzfas, all who were present with him in the shul were miraculously spared—a story preserved by Rabbi Moshe Podhortzer of Tzfas in the name of the elders of the city (brought in Toldos Adam at the end of Bas Ayin, Jerusalem 1959 ed.), and likewise cited by Rabbi Yeshaya HaLevi Horowitz of Tzfas in Eden Tziyon, p. 5.
In the plague that struck Tzfas in 1840, he proclaimed that the epidemic would cease upon his passing, and indeed, it did (Eden Tziyon, p. 6).
Jerusalem, 1847.
First edition.
Page Count: [2], 125, [1] leaves. The final leaf includes a rare list of subscribers.
Bibliography: Stefansky, Chassidus, no. 103.
