Selichot and Kinot for the Chmielnicki pogroms of 1648-1649, by R. Shabtai Katz, author of Siftei Kohen – the Shach. Amsterdam: Immanuel Benveniste, 1651. First edition.

On title page: "Selichot and Kinot for the evil decrees that occurred due to our many sins in Ukraine, Volhynia, Podolia and Lithuania, in the years 5408-5409 [Tach VeTat; 1648-1649], authored by the great luminary… R. Shabtai Katz, author of Siftei Kohen".

The book begins with a lengthy poetic introduction by the author, the Shach, with a detailed and emotional description of the events in Poland and the destruction of the Jewish community in the Chmielnicki pogroms, beginning with the Cossack uprising against the Polish government in Nisan 1648, the massacres of communities in Ukraine, Volhynia, Podolia and Galicia – including the numbers killed in each city, the names of famous Torah scholars killed in sanctification of G-d's name, and the travails of the many refugees (this introduction was later named Megillat Eifah and reprinted elsewhere, including in Shevet Yehudah, by R. Shlomo ibn Verga, Amsterdam, 1655).

In his introduction, the Shach writes that he declared the 20th of Sivan a day of fasting and mourning for his descendants, as the date of the destruction of the Nemyriv community, one of the first to be massacred by the Cossacks, as well as the date of the Blois blood libel in 1171 when over thirty Jews were burnt to death. This date was also chosen due to never coinciding with Shabbat.

At the end of the introduction is a poem forming the acrostic of the author's name, "Shabtai son of R. Meir Kohen" (which also appears in the same or in a shortened version in three of the Selichot and Kinot of the book).

Signature (faded) on title page: "[I am] Shlomo of Dubno".

R. Shlomo of Dubno (1739-1813), disciple of R. Shlomo of Chełm, the Mirkevet HaMishneh. Published many books, both his own and those of others. Renowned as an expert on the Biblical text, Masorah and grammar, he was asked by the Vilna Gaon to clarify the accurate Masorah of the Books of Neviim and Ketuvim – see the account by R. Pesach Finfer of Vilna (article in Beit Vaad LaChachamim, Leeds, 1902, and in his Masoret HaTorah VehaNeviim, Vilna, 1906). He was an editor of Moses Mendelssohn's commentary to Bereshit, but eventually stopped working for Mendelssohn and decided to publish Chumashim himself, which received approbations from leading rabbis of the generation (R. Shmuel Rabbi of Vilna, R. Chaim of Volozhin and R. Zelmele of Volozhin, disciples of the Vilna Gaon; as well as rabbis from Vilna, Shklow, Slutsk, the Brody Kloiz, Lviv, Berlin, Frankfurt and elsewhere). See the list of his subscribers published by R. David Kamenetzky in Yeshurun VIII-X.

24 leaves. 13.5 cm. Fair-good condition. Stains. Wear and creases. Tears, including small marginal open tear to title page, not affecting text, and small marginal open tears to several leaves. Early binding.

The present Selichot and Kinot was reprinted by Benveniste later that year, at the end of a large-format Selichot edition, but the present separate edition is particularly rare. Two extant copies are known in the Bodleian and Rosenthaliana collections. Another copy was auctioned by Sotheby's fifteen years ago. Recorded in the Bibliography of the Hebrew Book based on a photocopy of the Bodleian copy. The NLI catalogue also records only a photocopy.

Bookplate of Mozes Heiman Gans.