The present manuscript includes standard prayers as well as many liturgical poems. It also contains comments on standard prayers such as yigdal (fol. 40r) and barukh she-amar (fol. 31r). Isaac Luria (Ha-Ari) is quoted, along with the books Reshit Hokhmah and Shnei Luhot ha-Berit (fols. 39v, 51v, 90r). On fol. 80r-v are some short poems by Jacob Gavison and a story about Marranos from Gavison’s book, Omer ha-Shikhah, Livorno 1762 (fols. 137v-138r). Poems with authors identified as Moses Alashkar (fols. 11v-14v) and Saadia Zurafa (fols. 12r, 21r), also appear. On fol. 81r: “We heard from the sages of Jerusalem that if one prays from a handwritten prayerbook, anཧd not from a printed one, that person will be able to pray with greater devotion … therefore, I, the writer, decided to go in their footsteps …”

Sotheby’s is grateful to Menahem Schmelzer z”l and Benjamin Richler for catalogui𝓰ng this manuscript.

Provenance

Mordeca🍸i Yaish (owner’s entry, fol. 82v) — Leopold Zunz (owner’s entry and inscription, fol.1r)

Physical Description

189 leaves on paper, 10 5/8 x 8 ¼ inches; 270 x 210 mm, written in black ink in North African script, some initial words written in decorative style (for example, fols. 78v, 69v), catchwords, modern foliation in pencil; water damage, especially to top margin, margins reinforced throughout, fol. 81v-83v blank. Library buckram𒈔; spine partially detached.

Literature

Hirschfeld (ms. no. 190) ; on Zurafa see E. Hazan, La poesie hebraique en Afrique du Nord, 1995, pp. 246-249 (in Hebrew); on the Kabbalistic aspects of this manuscript see M. Hallamish, Kabbalah in Liturgy, Halakha and Customs, (2000), pp. 37, 458, 622 (in Hebrew)