Tefillah Zakah – Sephardic-rite siddur for weekdays, Shabbat, festivals and holidays, with commentaries, halachot and customs of Livorno community, edited by R. Avraham Yitzchak Castilo. Livorno: R. Avraham Yitzchak Castilo and R. Eliezer Saadon, [1789-1792].

Edited by R. Avraham Yitzchak Castilo, who added a commentary and customs of Livorno, until his death, when the printing continued posthumously.

Printed during the lifetime of the Chida. This is the first siddur to print halachic rulings by the Chida.

R. Avraham Yitzchak Castilo (1726-1789), a rabbi and printer of Livorno, preacher and poet. The Chida, asked to give a Shabbat Shuvah sermon in place of R. Avraham Yitzchak Castilo about a year after his passing, praised him profusely on that occasion.

The present siddur is an important and rare source of customs of the Livorno community.

R. Avraham Yitzchak Castilo's press, established in 1780 along with R. Eliezer Saadon, printed many important books, including most of the books of the Chida.

[6], 112, 114-136, 138-228 leaves. Lacking 2 leaves: 113, 137. 17.5 cm. Fair-good condition. Stains, including dampstains. Wear. Tears and open tears, extensively repaired with paper on margins of first leaves (around entire margins of title page), affecting text. Old binding, with leather spine and corners. Defects to binding.

Order of Sefirat HaOmer and Birkat HaLevanah. Amsterdam: David son of Yaakov Proops, [1817].

Small miniature format, with fine original leather binding, with gilt decorations.

The book opens with the blessing for counting the Omer and with the prayer recited after the counting. This is followed by the full text for each day's counting, a separate page for each day, with the Hebrew text above and the numbers of the days and weeks in Latin script below. The latter is written in the following manner (in Spanish or Portuguese): H [=Hoy/Hoje, today], S [=Semana, week], D [=Día/Dia, day]. Following that, the Birkat HaLevanah and the subsequent prayers are printed.

[32] leaves. Approx. 7 cm. Good condition. Stains. Original leather binding, with minor defects.

Bookplate of Mozes Heiman Gans.

Printed leaf to be hung in the Sukkah, Ulu Ushpizin Ila'in Kadishin, prayers and gematria for seven days of Sukkot, according to the order of the Ushpizin, with festival songs. Kokand (Bukhara, present-day Uzbekistan): Rachamim David Bayof for Chizkiyah Chachamof, with assistance of Azariah Yusuvof and Yaakov Yusufwej Baruchof, 1916. Judeo-Tajik (Bukharian).

Eight parts, each dedicated to one of the seven days of the festival, with a short prayer and numerical values pertinent to the Ushpizin of each day. The eighth part contains songs for Sukkot.

42.5X35 cm. Fair-poor condition. Stains, including dampstains. Many creases and folding marks. Tears, including many open tears to center of leaf and folds, affecting text, repaired with paper filling. Pen inscriptions to verso of leaf.

Rare. Not recorded in Bibliography of the Hebrew Book.

Few books were printed in Kokand in the Hebrew alphabet.

Machzor, Orden de Ros asanah y Kipur [prayers for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur]. Amsterdam: David Pardo y Salom ben Yosseph, printed by Menasseh Ben Israel, 1630. Spanish.

Introduction by publishers, David Pardo and Salom ben Yosseph, at beginning of book.

Although the name of Menasseh Ben Israel is unmentioned in the book, bibliographical sources (see below) record that this machzor was printed by his press.

172, 174-234 leaves. Lacking leaf 173. 14 cm. Fair-good condition. Stains, including dampstains. Wear and signs of heavy use. Tears, including marginal open tears to several leaves, affecting text. Close trimming, affecting text of several leaves. Handwritten inscriptions. Elaborate early leather binding. Wear and defects to binding and spine.

Typographical differences on last page from the digitized copy of the NLI catalog (different order of lines and concluding decoration).

References:

1.Harm den Boer, Spanish and Portuguese Editions from the Northern Netherlands in Madrid and Lisbon Public Collections, Vol. 22, No. 2 (Autumn 1988), pp. 97-143, no. 58.

2. Y. Ch. Copenhagen, Menasseh Ben Israel, Manuel Dias Soeiro 1604-1657, Bibliography, Institute for Study and Research on the Sephardi and Oriental Jewish Heritage, Jerusalem 1991, 1-297 (p. 60; Hebrew).

Exhibitions:

1. Menasseh Ben Israel, 1604-1657, catalogus van de tentoonstelling, Amsterdam, Joods Historisch Museum, 1957, no. 7 (a 1957 exhibition of books printed by Menasseh Ben Israel at the Jewish Museum of Amsterdam).

2. Treasures from the Library Ets Haim: Livraria Montezinos / Exhibition. Edited by Refael Weiser. Jerusalem: National Library of Israel, 1980, no. 74 (Hebrew).

Bookplate of Mozes Heiman Gans.

Ir David, "Sive De Convenientia Vocabulorum Rabbinicorum, cum Graecis, & quibusdam aliis linguis Europaeis", by R. David Cohen de Lara. Amsterdam: Nicolaes van Ravesteyn, 1638. First edition. Latin, Hebrew, Greek and Spanish.

Lexicon to words from the Mishnah, Talmud and Midrash borrowed from Greek or with cognates in other European languages.

After title page, dedication of author to Queen Christina of Sweden, followed by an introduction, both in Latin.

R. David Cohen de Lara (1602-1674) was rabbi of the Neveh Shalom Sephardic community in Hamburg, a philologist and lexicographer, who later became famous as a prominent opponent of Sabbateanism.

[8], 92 pages. 19 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains. Light wear. Many creases to some leaves. Original parchment binding, with stains and minor defects.

The present book appears in the catalog of books printed by Menasseh Ben Israel, published by his son Samuel Ben Israel Soeiro in 1652, possibly referring to the second edition of the book, Amsterdam 1648.

Bookplate of Mozes Heiman Gans.