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Bidding Information
Lot #    15030
Auction End Date    7/18/2006 10:54:00 AM (mm/dd/yyyy)
          
Title Information
Title (English)    Siftei Da'at
Title (Hebrew)    שפתי דעת
Author    [First Ed.] R. Ephraim b. Aaron of Luntshits
City    Prague
Publisher    Moses b. Joseph Katz
Publication Date    1610
          
Collection Information
Independent Item    This listing is an independent item not part of any collection
          
Description Information
Physical
Description		    First edition. 106, 108-121, 121-122 ff., 284:198 mm., nice margins, usual age staining, title and ff. 2-3 repaired, several words completed in facsimile. A very good copy bound in contemporary full leather on wood boards, tooled in blind, later spine.
          
Detailed
Description		    Homiletics by R. Ephraim b. Aaron of Luntshits (Leczyca; 1550–1619), rabbi and renowned preacher. He was known as "Ephraim of Luntshits," the popular pronunciation of Leczyca among Polish Jews. The name "Solomon" was added some time after 1601. In his youth R. Ephraim was sent to study in the yeshiva of R. Solomon Luria. At an early age he had already gained a reputation as a preacher, in which capacity he traveled to Lublin, Lemberg, Jaroslaw, and other towns. It is not known whether he ever held a regular communal post before he became head of a yeshiva in Lemberg when he was already past fifty. In 1604, he arrived in Prague where he served as president of the rabbinical court and head of the yeshiva, but relinquished his rabbinical post in the last year of his life. As a preacher he was distinguished for his lucid and fascinating sermons. He addressed the heads of the Council of Four Lands when they met in Lublin and was apparently on friendly terms with the leaders of that council on whose recommendation he was appointed rosh yeshiva in Lemberg. R. Ephraim's sermons shed much light on the religious and communal life of the Polish-Jewish community of his time. He railed against the wealthy members of the congregation whose passion for money and luxury caused them to withhold assistance from their needy brethren and he criticized their pretensions to spiritual and religious status on the basis of their commercial success. He said that wealth corrupts and destroys the character of men when they do not appreciate its purpose. At the same time, he complained about the poor who wished to enjoy the charity of the rich without making any effort to provide for their needs. In addition, he attacked certain casuistic methods of talmudic study (pilpul) which often neglected the truth, and the desire for personal aggrandizement among communal leaders.

R. Ephraim's sermons were collected and published in various books: Olelot Efrayim (Lublin, 1590); Orah le-Hayyim (ibid., 1595); Siftei Da'at (Prague, 1610); Ammudei Shesh (ibid., 1617); Petihot u-She'arim (Zolkiew, 1799). He also compiled a book of sermons entitled Rivevot Efrayim, which is occasionally mentioned in his other works. He composed three Selihot in connection with the invasion of Prague in 1611 by the army of the bishop of Passau.

          
Paragraph 2    ... המחבר... ר"מ דק"ק פראג... ר' שלמה אפרים נר"ו... וליקט מן כל הדרשות והחדושים אשר חידש בכל פרשה...

בשער: ותהי ראשית התחלתו יום חמשי בר"ח אלול שנת ש"ע. קולופון: ותשלם המלאכה... יום ה ב לחודש כסליו שנת שע"א. דף ב,ב: דגל הדפוס של "משפחת הגרשוני".

          
Reference
Description		    CD-EPI 0170578; H. H. Ben-Sasson, Hagut ve-Hanhagah (1959), p. 263; EJ
        
Associated Images
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Listing Classification
Period
17th Century:    Checked
  
Location
Other:    Bohemia
  
Subject
Homiletics:    Checked
  
Characteristic
First Editions:    Checked
Language:    Hebrew
  
Manuscript Type
  
Kind of Judaica