Collection of five books by R. David HaKohen of Vilna, author of Ir David – printed in Jerusalem, in the 1880s.

R. David HaKohen, author of Ir David, lived in Jerusalem and printed several books in the 1870s-1880s composed of sentences which all have the numerical value of the year.

The books' purpose is clarified in the approbation of R. Yechiel Michel Pines to the 1886 part of Sukat David (not in the present volumes). Sick and unable to work, the author would make a living from his book with chronograms for the current year, which he was able to produce effortlessly.

See Hebrew description for a detailed list of books.

5 books. Varying size and condition. New bindings. The books have not been thoroughly examined, and are being sold as is.

Pirkei Heichalot, by the Tannaim R. Yishmael the High Priest and R. Akiva, and Testament of Naftali son of Jacob to his sons. Jerusalem: [Zichron Shlomo, established by the brothers Löwy, 1889]. Published for the first time from an ancient manuscript by R. Shlomo Aharon Wertheimer0

[1], 3-13 leaves. 20 cm. Fair-good condition. Stains. Tears and open tears to title page and other leaves, slightly affecting text. Stamps. New binding.

Sh. Halevy, no. 674.

Manuscript, Zimrat HaAretz – kabbalistic kavanot for prayer, and Kesef HaKipurim – tikun for a plague, by kabbalist R. Avigdor Azriel. [Jerusalem, between 1777-1797].

The present manuscript is the copy of the author R. Avigdor Azriel, containing his kabbalistic works – Zimrat HaAretz and Kesef HaKipurim. The first work (Zimrat HaAretz) was mostly written by one writer, in Oriental semi-cursive script, apart from three leaves in the middle (41-43) written in another hand, in Oriental rounded cursive script (Hebron style, resembling the handwriting of the Chida). The second work (Kesef HaKipurim) was written entirely in the second hand. Both writers were likely kabbalists of the Beit El yeshiva in Jerusalem, peers of the author.

At the beginning of each work, the author added a title page text in his handwriting and with his signature. The text of the first title page begins: "I, a lowly creature, made this booklet, small in quantity, and named it Zimrat HaAretz, regarding important practice, to do the will of our Father in Heaven and to rectify the Shechinah and bring the redemption nearer…", and at the end: "So says the servant of G-d, Avigdor Azriel" (calligraphic signature). Text of second title page: "I, the small one of Eretz Israel, made this booklet as a tikun for plague, may it not come to be, I called it Kesef HaKipurim, and I collected all the teachings of the Arizal… and also gathered some Segulot and added my own innovations… So says the servant of G-d, Avigdor Azriel" (calligraphic signature).

On p. 11b, gloss handwritten by author.

The present manuscript was written after 1777, the year of death of the author's teacher – the Rashash, whom he mentions with a blessing for the deceased, but before the author's own passing in 1797.

The two works were printed in Jerusalem in 1892 by R. Avraham Azriel, a descendant of the author, but the present manuscript contains many differences from the printed version in organization and text.

We know of several corresponding manuscripts which were also copied for the author. One is JTS Ms. 2137, which comprises both of the above works, all written in the first hand of the present manuscript, and contains many glosses and corrections handwritten by the author. The first work begins with a title page handwritten and signed by the author, and the second work has a title page written by the copyist. The order and text of that manuscript accord with the printed text, and can be posited to be the manuscript used by the printers (the author's corrections are incorporated into the printed text).

A second manuscript, Benayahu Ms. K 159, contains only Zimrat HaAretz. It too is in the hand of the first copyist of the present manuscript, with a title page handwritten and signed by the author. This copy does not contain glosses by the author.

A third manuscript, JTS Ms. 3639, contains only Kesef HaKipurim, by the same copyist, with no title page and without the author's glosses (it may be the second part of the Benayahu Ms.).

As an example of a notable variant, the title page of Kesef HaKipurim in the first JTS Ms. reads (like the printed version): "I announce that all the kavanot written here are the very words of… the Arizal, and apart from him I wrote nothing, but rather arranged and expanded…". The present version, however, reads: "I collected all the teachings of the Arizal… and also gathered some Segulot and added my own innovations…".

The kabbalist
R. Avigdor Azriel (d. 1797), a prominent kabbalist in the Beit El yeshiva in Jerusalem, and a close disciple of R. Shalom Mizrachi Sharabi (the Rashash). He was also a member of the Chesed LeAvraham yeshiva in Jerusalem headed by R. David Pardo, author of Chasdei David on the Tosefta, and was later appointed a member of the Beit Din of the Maharit Algazi. Three of his halachic responsa were printed by the Maharit Algazi in his Simchat Yom Tov (Thessaloniki, 1794, sections 2, 9, 27). The Yisa Berachah, in his approbation to Zimrat HaAretz (Jerusalem 1892), describes him with epithets such as "a lofty personage, pious, holy and abstinent…".

[3], 2-40, [41-44]; 1-16 leaves; [15] leaves (total of 75 written leaves). 21 cm. Fair condition. Stains, including large, dark dampstains. Worming in many places, affecting text. New binding.

Handwritten leaf, document of sale of ownership of a courtyard. Tunisia, 1789-1835.

Large-format leaf, in Western cursive script.

The document mentions the dayan R. Natan Borgel (a leading Tunisian rabbi, author of Chok Natan) as the one who mortgaged the property to R. Eliyahu Lousada.

The document itself is dated Tishrei 1789, and is signed by witnesses. A confirmation on the margins is signed by the Portuguese community Beit Din of Tunis, with signatures of the members of the Beit Din, rabbis of the Portuguese community in Tunisia: R. Yitzchak son of R. David Alhayk, R. Avraham Abukara and R. Daniel Franko.

An added confirmation dated Shevat 1835 attests that the payment had been made in Iyar 1790, with calligraphic signatures of "Mordechai Darmon" (scribe of the Tunis Beit Din) and another witness (undeciphered).

R. Yitzchak Alhayk was the Rabbi of the Portuguese (Grana) community of Tunis (succeeding his father-in-law R. Mordechai Baruch Carvalho, d. 1785 in a plague; R. Yitzchak published his father-in-law's Meira Dachya, Livorno 1792). He officiated in Tunis until his passing in 1802, and was succeeded by R. Avraham Abukara, the second signatory of the document. R. Avraham Abukara the first ("HaGadol") passed away in 1818, and was succeeded by R. Daniel Franko, the third signatory of the document, until his passing in 1820.

[1] double leaf. 43 cm. Fair condition. Stains, including dampstains. Tears and defects, affecting several words. Folding marks.

Printed booklet, Hitler Haggadah, by Simon Coiffeur (Nissim son of Shimon). Work in the literary genre of the Judeo-Arabic translation of the Passover Haggadah. [Rabat, 1943?]. Judeo-Arabic. With printed wrapper.

Short work in the literary genre of the Sharh or Judeo-Arabic translation of the Bible and other books, recounting the liberation of Northern Africa by the Allied Forces and the redemption of Jews from occupation by Germany and its client states, the Vichy and Mussolini regimes.

The Vichy regime applied racial laws forcing Jews into labor; in Algeria, they were even sent to concentration camps and death camps; Tunisia, under German occupation, had many of its Jews sent to death camps; Libya, under Italian occupation, had racial laws applied, and Jews were persecuted and were forced into labor and concentration camps. Upon their liberation, the racial laws were abolished and the prisoners freed. At the time several similar folk compositions were composed, documenting the war and the liberation.

The present Haggadah mentions the suffering of the Jews in brief, while detailing the course of the war at length, from a North African perspective. The French resistance and Charles de Gaulle are the object of special focus, and in humor is evinced in some instances, as in the substitution of "Rabbi Josef Stalin" for Rabbi Yosi the Galilean.

[1] printed title cover, [1] title page, 13 pages, [1] back wrapper. 15 cm. Good condition. Light stains. Original Bristol board wrapper.

A facsimile of this Haggadah with a Hebrew and English translation was published by Mineged, Jerusalem 2021.