![Portrait of R. Tzvi Hirsch Lempert, author of Piskei HaGra. [Lithuania, ca. late 1898s].
Large photograph, mounted on st](https://files.kedem-auctions.com/files/Sale109/283_1.jpg "Portrait Photograph of Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Lempert, Author of Piskei HaG")
![Portrait of R. Tzvi Hirsch Lempert, author of Piskei HaGra. [Lithuania, ca. late 1898s].
Large photograph, mounted on st](https://files.kedem-auctions.com/files/Sale109/283_2.jpg "Portrait Photograph of Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Lempert, Author of Piskei HaG")
Auction 109 Books | Letters and Manuscripts | Megillot and Jewish Ceremonial Art
Portrait Photograph of Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Lempert, Author of Piskei HaGra – Lithuania, 1898s
Opening: $200
Sold for: $250
Including buyer's premium
Portrait of R. Tzvi Hirsch Lempert, author of Piskei HaGra. [Lithuania, ca. late 1898s].
Large photograph, mounted on sturdy cardboard. On back of card, a handwritten inscription identifies the subject of the photograph as "the celebrated Gaon R. Tzvi Hirsch Lempert, Rabbi of Stalovichy (in Russia), author of Piskei HaGra on the four parts of the Shulchan Aruch, passed away in Jerusalem". Another inscription in English, and English stamp of a New York public institutions [apparently the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society which R. Bentzion Eisenstadt headed in 1906; see: Ohalei Shem, Pinsk 1912, p. 298].
The photograph depicts R. Tzvi Hirsch next to a table full of books, holding one volume. A portrait of the Vilna Gaon (printed 1897) and a map of Eretz Israel based on the Vilna Gaon (Odessa, 1888) are visible in the background.
R. Tzvi Hirsch Lempert (1835-1905), extensively studied the teachings of the Vilna Gaon. He served as Rabbi of Babruysk, Garliava and Stalovichy. In his later years, in 1904, he immigrated to Jerusalem. R. Tzvi Pesach Frank, Rabbi of Jerusalem, recounts how when he lost his vision from overexertion in his studies, he traveled to the gravesite of the Vilna Gaon to ask him to intercede for him, and he miraculously regained his vision.
Height of photograph: 18 cm. Maximal height (including card): 19 cm. Good condition. Light stains and defects. Handwritten catalogue inscription on manuscript: "(21)".
Provenance: Collection of R. Bentzion Eisenstadt, author of Dor Rabbanav VeSofrav (1873-1951). Most of the photographs in the Eisenstadt collection are printed in his Otzar HaTemunot (Album Ivri, New York, 1909) and Otzar Temunot (New York, 1915). In the introduction to Otzar HaTemunot (1909), R. Eisenstadt writes of his photograph collection: "The vast majority of photographs have not yet been published, and merely collecting them took me a long time of over ten years, during my work on my book Dor Rabbanav VeSofrav. Some photographs are literally the only existing exemplar, and I attained them only with much physical labor and great toil…".
Portraits – Prints, Photographs and Art
Portraits – Prints, Photographs and Art