Manuscript, notebook of homilies and novellae, handwritten by R. Shimon Chaim Charosh. Jerusalem, Morocco, Algeria and Gibraltar, 1870-1894.

Cursive Sephardic script. First pages decorated with colorful frame. At the beginning of the first page is an illustration of a Torah crown, inside of which is written: "Shimon Chaim Charosh". R. Shimon Chaim also signed his name at the end of some homilies, sometimes with his calligraphic signature. The manuscript contains homilies he delivered in Jerusalem in the 1870s-1880s, in Morocco and Algeria [apparently ca. 1882], in Gibraltar in 1882-1883, and in Constantine, Algeria, in 1893-1894.

The manuscript also contains novellae on Tractates Sanhedrin and Bava Metzia, and more.

For detailed contents of the manuscript, see Hebrew description .

R. Shimon Chaim Charosh (d. 1897) was a Torah scholar in the Maghrebi community in Jerusalem. A scion of the Charosh family of Marrakesh, son of R. Avraham Charosh, the first emissary of the Maghrebi community in Jerusalem. R. Shimon Chaim served as a scribe of halachic documents in Jerusalem, and like his father he traveled as an emissary to North Africa and Gibraltar in 1882-1883. He also authored a book of homilies (see next lot).

NLI Ms. 8=412 contains homilies by rabbis of the Charosh family, the ancestors of R. Shimon Chaim. This manuscript was described by Gershom Scholem, Kitvei Yad BeKabbalah, Jerusalem 1930, No. 151. At the beginning of this manuscript are inscriptions written by the rabbis of the family on the death of their respective fathers, concluding with one by R. Shimon Chaim on his father R. Avraham's passing in 1872.

[132] written leaves (some originally numbered), and more blank leaves. 19 cm. Fair-good condition. Stains. Open tears to several leaves, slightly affecting text. Original leather binding, decorated, with gilt inscription on front of binding: "Shimon Chaim Choresh". Binding partially repaired.