The Magistrate's Court in Beit Shemesh today (Wednesday) prevented the public sale of 'Notebook 13' - one of the most important and rare manuscripts of Rabbi Kook, the late.
According to a report by Dvir Amar on Channel 7, Judge Ofir Yehezkel ordered the seizure of the notebook and its transfer to court custody, after serious doubts arose regarding the legality of its possession.
''Penkas Y"T,' also known as 'The First of Jaffa,' includes 374 pages in Rabbi Kook's handwriting and contains initial drafts of the foundations of his Torah.
The item was presented by Israel Porush, owner of the 'Nakdimon' auction house, as the flagship item in the sale that was scheduled to take place yesterday at 8:00 PM - and is estimated to be worth hundreds of thousands of shekels.
The 'Mercaz HaRav' yeshiva, which claims ownership of all of the manuscripts of the Rabbinate, has been working in recent days through lawyers to stop the sale.
The petition affidavit submitted to the court claims: "The manuscript was never sold, was never given as a gift, and no one was permitted to possess it beyond the purposes of advertising and publishing.".
According to the Channel 7 report, during the discussion, disturbing details were revealed about how the notebook came into the hands of its holder - Eliezer Lipa Greensberger.
Greensberger claimed at the hearing that he purchased the manuscript from a man named Daniel Bezalel, after a meeting at a synagogue.
In his cross-examination by attorney Meir Heller, who represents the Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva and the Hertz Institute - which claims that the item disappeared from its offices - Greensberger admitted that he paid only 120,000 shekels for the item.
The money was paid in cash after being withdrawn from the "Change" office, without any official banking documentation for the transaction. He said the seller claimed to him that the item came from the Genizah, but provided no proof of this.
Following the court's decision, the sale was canceled and the register will remain under legal supervision - until the rights to it are finally clarified.
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