Manuscript, Algerine-rite high holiday machzor, "according to the rite of the synagogue of the late R. Nehorai". [Algiers, ca. 17th/18th century and 19th century].

Most of the machzor (approx. two thirds) is handwritten in early Western script [ca. 17th or early 18th century]. The machzor was later supplemented with many leaves in a later hand [19th century], handwritten by R. Shlomo Azrad.

The machzor begins with a title page written by him: "High holiday machzor according to the rite of the synagogue of the late R. Nehorai" – the ancient synagogue of Algiers was called Chevrat Nehorai, after R. Nehorai Crescas, an early rabbi of Algiers (ca. 1510-1590; mentioned in Responsa Tashbetz IV [Chut HaMeshulash], 21; Malchei Yeshurun, p. 215). The title page also contains the writer's colophon: "Completed… in the Ten Days of Repentance in [1867]… I sign my name on my book, a small machzor handwritten by Shlomo son of Avraham Azrad…".

[The chronogram for the year has been purposely changed to 1662, while originally it apparently read 1867. The "correction" antedates the purchase of the manuscript by Sassoon, who gives the erroneous date in his catalog (cited below)].

A leaf at the beginning of the manuscript has a Judeo-Arabic inscription with names of officials of the Nehorai Synagogue.

The machzor comprises many bakashot and piyyutim by rabbis of Spain and North Africa, including Algiers (such as R. Avraham Tawah and R. Saadiah Zarafa).

Leaves 178-180 (in the later hand) contain an Ashkavah prayer naming dozens of rabbis of Algiers, beginning with the Rivash, Rashbatz (Tashbetz) and his descendants, until the generation of the author. The lists also includes R. Chaim Yosef David Azulai, the Chida. Leaf 183 (in the earlier hand) contains a short Ashkavah prayer headed by the following remark: "It is customary to make an Ashkavah for the rabbis, our great teacher the Rivash, our great teacher the Rashbatz and his son…". The same page has an inscription in a later hand next to the piyyut Barchi Nafshi (by R. Yehudah HaLevi), which mentions "the custom of Esnoga al-Kabira" (the Great Synagogue in Algiers).

A similar manuscript, Benayahu Ms. Z 42, contains the North African (Algerine) rite for the three festivals. The main part of that machzor was written ca. the turn of the 18th century by R. Tzemach Tzayari, for "Shem Tov Tzedakah" (who lost it and reacquired it in 1728, as he wrote on p. 79b); this machzor was also supplemented with leaves handwritten by R. Shlomo Azrad, who signs his name in a colophon dated 1866.

Another manuscript, piyyutim by North African rabbis, written earlier and completed in 1891 by R. Shlomo Azrad, was offered for auction in the Judaica Jerusalem catalog, Nisan 2012, lot 446, from the collection of Prof. Avraham Attal.

R. Shlomo Azrad (ca. 1824-1905; Malchei Yeshurun, p. 33), rabbi in Algiers, scribe and expert on the customs of the Algiers community and the laws influenced by astronomy. Author of Meorei Or (Algiers, 1893).

[337] pages (late pagination in pencil, including two leaves before title page). Pages in earlier hand: 9-24, 29-74, 83-84, 89-122, 133-134, 149-166, 183-212, 221-250, 253-258, 273-276, 283-294, 303-312, 323-328 (total of 216 pages; the rest are in the later hand). Varying size of leaves, approx. 25-27 cm. Fair-good condition. Stains (including dark stains) and wear. Tears to several leaves (some resulting from ink erosion), affecting text. Worming, slightly affecting text. Deletions on several pages. New binding.

Provenance:

1. Formerly Sassoon Ms. 972 (Ohel David, pp. 772-776).

2. Sotheby's New York, May 1981, Important Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts from the Collection Formed by the late David Solomon Sassoon, Lot 51.