Vikuach Shivah Harim / Dialogo Dos Montes – Dialogue of the Mountains, a play for Shavuot by Reuel Jesurun (Paul de Pina). Amsterdam: Israel Mondovy for Gerhard Johan Janson, 1767. Portuguese and Hebrew.

Rhymed allegorical play, based on the Midrash describing the argument between the mountains before the giving of the Torah, first performed on Shavuot 1624 for the inauguration of the Beit Yaakov synagogue in Amsterdam. Accompanied by seven sermons on the giving of the Torah, "delivered by the mountains", by R. Shaul HaLevi Mortera (Spinoza's rabbi). The text was proofread by R. Yitzchak de Eliyahu Chizkiyahu HaKohen Belinfante, who also added an introduction and poem. The beginning of the book features an approbation from R. Shlomo Shalem – a rabbi of Bulgaria and rabbi of the Portuguese Talmud Torah community in Amsterdam – and introduction of publisher R. Aharon de Chaves. The work is dedicated to David de Aharon Jesurun, probably one of the author's descendants.

At the beginning of the present copy are bound two additional pages – a declaration (Manifesto) by the publisher R. Aharon de Chaves, telling of the ancient provenance of the play and the cause for its new printing, describing its contents and style, and calling for the public to support its distribution. To the best of our knowledge, these leaves are bibliographically unknown.

The author,
Reuel Jesurun (1575-1634), was born Paulo de Pina to a family of Marranos from Lisbon. In 1599 he traveled to Rome to join a Christian order, but on the way there he met the physician Elijah Montalto who dissuaded him. After three years of wandering in Brazil, he settled in Amsterdam in 1604, where he openly returned to Judaism and adopted his Hebrew name. He was a leader of the Beit Yaakov community in Amsterdam, an editor of the community's ordinances and officiated in the Talmud Torah. After marrying his daughter Sarah to the poet and grammarian Moshe son of Gidon Abudiente (1610-1688), he immigrated to Hamburg, where he passed away.

[12], 100 pages + [2] leaves at beginning of volume (declaration by publisher). Approx. 19 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains. Creases. Minor marginal tears to first two leaves. Inscriptions on endpapers. Bookplate. Leather binding with gilt inscriptions and decorations, with original cardboard binding. Peeling and wear to leather binding; tears across spine.

See: Kayserling, Biblioteca Española-Portugueza-Judaica, Strasbourg 1890, p. 90.

Bookplate of Mozes Heiman Gans.