Tehillim with multifaceted (Pardes) commentary, by the kabbalist R. Immanuel Chai Ricchi, author of Mishnat Chassidim. Livorno, [1742-1743]. First edition.
In the course of the printing of this book, the author was murdered in sanctification of G-d's Name. On the title page, his name is referred to as among the living, however, at the end of the book, the author's son tells of his murder. A lamentation for him, by R. Shlomo Yosef son of R. Natan Carpi, was also added to the book‏.
R. Immanuel Chai Ricchi (1688-1743) was a leading Italian kabbalist, author of Mishnat Chassidim and other compositions. He traveled widely, reached Eretz Israel and established a yeshiva in Jerusalem (one of the students of this yeshiva was the Or HaChaim). In 1742, he visited Italian communities to raise funds for his yeshiva. At that time, he began printing this book in Livorno. On Rosh Chodesh Adar 1743, on his way from Modena to Bologna, soldiers arrested him and tried to force him to eat pork. Upon his adamant refusal, they strangled him to death with his tefillin straps and looted all the charity funds he had collected. His cousin, R. Immanuel son of R. Yitzchak Ben Tzion Ricchi, writes in his lamentation: "His blood was spilled because he did not want to defile his pure soul". R. Yaakov Londin writes about the murder of R. Immanuel Ricchi in his preface to the book Shiva Einayim (Livorno, 1745): "He was murdered in sanctification of G-d's Name on the same day that I returned on that route… He was captured by three soldiers, who spilled his blood and looted him of a great sum of money, for the sake of G-d's Holy Name. He would not defile himself with their food and put pork into his mouth…".
At the beginning of the book is a long autobiography of the author, describing his works, wanderings and experiences. In his epilogue to the book, the author's son, R. Avraham Shmuel Ricchi, provides further details about the author and describes his murder: "Upon his departure from Modena to travel through Bologna… he met wicked evildoers… with swords girded on their loins… and they looted him and attacked him…". He then describes how the Jews of Modena gave R. Immanuel a Jewish burial, after being informed of his murder: "I will not be ungrateful… to the residents of Modena… for they respected him in his death, and immediately upon hearing the bad tidings, the city notables set out… They disinterred his body from the river bank and brought him to rest in the Jewish graveyard in Cento…". At the end of his epilogue, R. Avraham Shmuel copies an unnerving notation found in R. Immanuel's personal siddur, written in his own handwriting, recording a dream in which he was informed that his is the soul of Rabbi Yehuda ben Bava, one of the ten martyrs, and that he would die in sanctification of G-d's Name: "I hereby write the dream letter by letter, word for word, as it appears in his handwriting in his siddur… This is to remember that in Jerusalem in the year 1740, I dreamt… one night, I and another person were being killed sanctifying G-d's Name, and afterward, that same year on Friday night… I was told in a dream that the soul of my son… is the soul of a Tanna… and I inquired about myself… They told me, 'And you are R. Yehuda ben Bava'…".
Interestingly, the author concludes his commentary in this work with the topic of the ten martyrs, with specific mention of R. Yehuda ben Bava.
In the center of the title page: the author's family emblem, featuring a lion holding a stalk of wheat in its mouth. A Hebrew inscription surrounds the emblem.
138, [2] leaves. 33 cm. Good condition. Stains. Defect to leaf 70, affecting several words (possibly occurred during printing). Stamps. Inscriptions. New leather binding.