Shnei Luchot HaBrit (Shlah), ethics and fear of G-d, kabbalah and halachah, by R. Yeshayah HaLevi Horowitz; with Vavei HaAmudim by his son R. Sheftel Segal. Amsterdam: Immanuel Benveniste, 1648. First edition.

Shnei Luchot HaBrit contains many halachic novellae, kabbalistic principles, homiletics and ethics, and incorporates all realms of the Torah. The book was prized throughout the Jewish world, and its teachings are quoted in the books of leading poskim and kabbalists. Many renowned Chassidic leaders were extraordinarily devoted to the study of the books of the Shlah.

The Bach, R. Yoel Sirkes, notably acclaimed the author and his works in his approbation to the Shaar HaShamayim siddur: "R. Yeshayah HaLevi… left behind blessing in his holy works, and when seeing and reading them we sensed the holiness from high above in all our limbs, and this is the sign that his works were composed for the sake of Heaven, to repair future generations…". The Tosafot Yom Tov writes in his approbation to the siddur: "He is a holy, awe-inspiring man… who was no doubt invested with a heavenly spirit".

Vavei HaAmudim is printed on the final 44 leaves, with a divisional title page.

Handwritten inscription on title page (deleted with ink): "I am Shmuel Abatz".

Short glosses in several places.

[2], 421, [1]; 44 leaves. Leaf [2], with poems, bound out of place, after leaf 4. 31.5 cm. Varying condition of leaves, fair-good to fair. Stains, including many dampstains, especially to Vavei HaAmudim, and traces of former dampness. Tears, including open tears to last leaves, slightly affecting text on several pages, repaired with paper. Light worming. Modern binding, leather-coated wood, in early style, with gilt inscriptions (including the name "Iahacob Querido", possibly the name of the owner that had appeared on the original binding), with eight corner decorations and two flower-shaped decorations on front and back of binding, made of brass, and remains of clasps. Minor defects to binding.

Bookplate of Mozes Heiman Gans.

Pachad Yitzchak, description of the miracle that occurred to the Padua community in 1684, during the Ottoman war, by R. Yitzchak Chaim Cantarini (Yechkam). Amsterdam: David Tartas, 1685. First edition.

Half-title with copper-engraved illustration of the Binding of Isaac.

First book authored by R. Yitzchak Chaim Cantarini (Yechkam), with a detailed and poetic description of the Christian attack on the Jewish ghetto in Padua, on August 20, 1684.

During the Austro-Turkish war, a rumor spread that the Jews assisted the Turks in their struggle against the Christians during the battle over the city of Buda (Budapest), which incited an angry mob to attempt to break into the Jewish ghetto in Padua on 10th Elul 1684.

The massacre was averted at the last moment by the king's army, and the festival of "Purim Buda" was instituted and celebrated by Padua Jews each year on this date. The author was an eyewitness to most of the events described in the book, which he describes at length and in detail, comprising much historical material and including official documents of the government of Padua and the Republic of Venice, which then ruled Padua (the documents were translated into Hebrew and incorporated into the book).

R. Yitzchak Chaim HaKohen Cantarini – Yechkam (1644-1723), a physician, poet, rabbi and preacher in Padua. Concluded medical studies in the University of Padua in 1664, and was ordained rabbi in 1669. He taught R. Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (the Ramchal) grammar and rhetoric. He was a regular preacher in the Padua synagogue, whose sermons were at times attended even by Christians. Apart from the present book, he authored several works in Hebrew and Latin, as well as poems. His Et Ketz, discussing the end of times and the messianic era, was printed in Amsterdam, 1710 (including a half-title very similar to the present one).

Pencil inscriptions to verso of leaf with engraving and margins of several leaves.

[1], 53, [1] leaves. 18.5 cm. Overall good condition. Stains. First gathering loose. Oriental binding, with color endpaper. Gilt decorations on spine. Worming and minor defects to binding.

Bookplate of Mozes Heiman Gans.

Rare.

Mesilat Yesharim, containing all matters of ethics and fear of G-d, by R. Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, the Ramchal. [Amsterdam]: Naftali Hertz Rofe, [1740]. First edition, printed during the lifetime of the Ramchal, during his stay in Amsterdam (before he immigrated to Eretz Israel).

Fine copy, in early leather binding, with gilt decorations.

Fine handwritten dedication on endpaper. The upper part is written in two concentric circles (the numerical value of all the letters in both circles forms a chronogram for the year), and the lower part is written in the form of a short poem: "A gift to… Yaakov Yosef son of my dear friend and relative, the perfect R. Avraham Shlomo Zalman Rubens, on the occasion of his thirteenth birthday [this text forms a chronogram for the year 5614 (1854)]… From me, Zalman Rubens" (R. Zalman Rubens served as a member of the Pekidim VeAmarkalim society in Amsterdam, and is mentioned in various letters of theirs).

Mesilat Yesharim is renowned as a refined, clear summary of the Ramchal's other works (Derech Hashem, Daat Tevunot, Klach Pitchei Chochmah, and others), written in measured, precise language with great depth of thought. In his introduction to his edition of the book "Mesilat Yesharim – Im Iyunim", R. Yechezkel Sarna mentions a tradition in the name of the Vilna Gaon that no extraneous word can be found until Chapter 11! R. Yerucham of Mir would tell his disciples that "Mesilat Yesharim is based on all the Ramchal's kabbalistic works, yet he simplified the concepts and brought them closer to our language, making us imagine that we have a connection to it when studying it" (Daat Chochmah UMusar, I, p. 249).

The author explains in his introduction that this work was composed to assist in the acquisition of ethics (musar) and fear of G-d, which cannot be achieved through knowledge alone. The purpose of this work is not the innovation of previously unknown concepts, but rather constant review and meditation to anchor those ideas within one's soul. Indeed, this book has been accepted throughout the Jewish world as the primary book for the study of ethics.

When the Vilna Gaon first saw the book, he proclaimed that a new light has come down to illuminate the world. In his high regard for the book, he paid a gold coin for it. In his foreword to Derech Hashem, R. Y. Moltzan quotes the Vilna Gaon's statement that were the author still alive, he would have travelled on foot all the way to Italy to greet him. He further relates that the Vilna Gaon would frequently review the book.

Chassidic leaders likewise appreciated the great stature of the book and the holiness of its kabbalist author. The Maggid of Kozhnitz attested that all the heights he reached in his youth stemmed from the Mesilat Yesharim. The Ohev Yisrael of Apta and R. Menachem Mendel of Rimanov diligently studied Mesilat Yesharim in great depth, and describe it in awesome and wondrous terms. The Apta Rav would say that his spiritual direction and education were drawn first and foremost from Mesilat Yesharim (Sefer HaChassidut, p. 146). R. Nachman of Breslov would instruct new disciples to study Mesilat Yesharim (Sichot VeSipurim, p. 167), and the Bnei Yissachar wrote in his additions to the book Sur MeRa VaAseh Tov: "Study Mesilat Yesharim and you will quench your thirst and give delights to your soul; its words are sweeter than honey". R. Yaakov Yosef of Ostroh (Rav Yeibi) writes in his approbation to the Ramchal's book Klach Pitchei Chochmah (Korets, 1785): "Mesilat Yesharim, the paths of G-d which the righteous tread, written by the great rabbi… R. Moshe Chaim Luzzatto. And this is the Torah which Moshe presented to Israel, to understand the words of the wise and their riddles, through its upright teachings...". In his foreword to the same book, the publisher quotes the Maggid of Mezeritch who stated that "[the Ramchal's] generation was not worthy of appreciating his righteousness and temperance".

R. Yosef Zundel of Salant told his illustrious disciple R. Yisrael Salanter that when receiving a farewell blessing upon leaving the Volozhin yeshiva, he asked R. Chaim of Volozhin which ethics book to study. His teacher responded: "All musar books are good to study, but Mesilat Yesharim should be your guide".

Since its first printing in 1740, Mesilat Yesharim has been reprinted in hundreds of editions, and to this day remains the primary musar book studied in Torah and Chassidic study halls.

[6], 63 leaves. 15 cm. Good condition. Light stains. Worming in one place to first leaves, slightly affecting text. Early leather binding, with minor defects.

Bookplate of Mozes Heiman Gans.

Seder Tefillot, Shevachot VeShirim – order of prayers, praises and poems, "according to the Shingly rite". Amsterdam: Yosef, Yaakov and Avraham son of Shlomo Proops, 1757. First edition.

Some words on title page in red ink.

Siddur according to the rite of the communities of Cochin, India. Cochin Jews traditionally hold Shingly (Cranganore / Kodungallur) to be the first site of Jewish settlement in the region (Kodungallur is a port city 18 km north of Cochin).

Title page specifies the book contents: prayers for Simchat Torah and for the marriage ceremony, for circumcision, for immersion and circumcision of slaves and converts, for Purim, and for Yom Kippur.

After title page, second leaf contains details of location and date of printing and names of printers, in Portuguese, their home in Amsterdam and general information on their press.

The second edition of the present book (with additions and variants) was printed in Amsterdam, 1769 as "Order of Prayers for Simchat Torah".

Cochin, India, was one of the prominent Jewish communities which many of whose members were slaves, maidservants, and ‘freedmen’. As late as the 18th-century, Jews there still customarily purchased slaves, circumcised and immersed them for servitude, and integrated them into family and communal life. In time, many were manumitted by their masters and became full Jews (for reference, see Hebrew description). The present siddur contains documentation of this phenomenon of slaves and freed converts within that community, in the rite for ‘Circumcision of Slaves and Converts’ printed therein.

[2], 78 leaves. 17 cm. Good condition. Stains. Tear affecting text of one leaf, repaired with tape. Old leather binding, with defects (most of spine torn and lacking).

Bookplate of Mozes Heiman Gans.

Manuscript, commentary on the ketubah, by R. Avraham son of R. Shabbetai Del Vecchio – author's autograph. [Italy, ca. 1610s-1630s].

Halachic work with a sentence-by-sentence commentary on the ketubah text, with instructions, laws, customs and more.

Main text in scribal writing, with many additions, deletions and corrections in the handwriting of the author in the margins and between the lines. At beginning and end of manuscript, approx. two pages in author's handwriting.

Apart from the present autograph, another extant manuscript – Leeds University (England) Ms. 302 – is entirely written by the author, with many corrections, and appears to be an earlier version of the present manuscript.

This work appears in other Italian manuscripts, copied by scribes.

This work was published recently by R. Yitzchak Hershkowitz (Perush HaKetubah, Machon Harerei Kedem, Brooklyn 2003), but he was unaware of the present autograph and the other autograph (his edition is based on two copyings: Ginzburg-Moscow Mss. 434 and 278).

R. Avraham son of R. Shabbetai Del Vecchio (MehaZekenim; d. 1654), disciple of R. Moshe Provençal. Served as rabbi in Sassuolo, where he began to author the present commentary on the ketubah. Later, ca. 1633, he relocated to officiate in Mantua, where he is a signatory on halachic decisions, enactments and bans alongside his contemporary rabbis of Mantua (see: Simonsohn, History of the Jews in the Duchy of Mantua [Hebrew], p. 515, and index). Most of his works remain in manuscript: Likutei Orot (novellae and encyclopedic work, mentioned by the Chida in Shem HaGedolim, Maarechet Sefarim, Lamed); Zera Avraham – index to Ein Yaakov; a work on the principle of Migo; a work on annulment of vows; a commentary on the 13 Attributes of Mercy; a commentary on the Berurim document; explanations of unfamiliar words in the Zohar; and more.

The ketubah text names his city, Sassuolo, and the date of writing is 1615; however, the author appears to have continued to put finishing touches to his work even after this year, and perhaps even after his move from Sassuolo to Mantua.

[24] leaves (including three blank leaves). Approx. 19 cm. Good condition. Stains. Original cardboard binding, with minor defects.

Bookplate of Mozes Heiman Gans.