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Program and prayers for the annual convention of Italian Rabbis in Padua. The title page describes it as Programma e Preghiere per l’annuale Apertura e per chiusa degli Studj Nell’ Istituto convitto Rabbinico Lombardo-Veneto in Padova, that is the opening program and services for the annual convention of the rabbis of Lobardy-Venice held in Padua. The program has twenty entries, in some cases more than one activity occurs at the same time. At the end of the program is the name of the director, Francesco Giuseppe Primo. Next are prayers, composed by Professor Rabbi Lelio Della Torre, in facing Hebrew and Italian, and then a benediction, also composed by R. Lelio Della Torre and delivered by Francesco Giuseppe Primo.
R. Lelio Della Torre was an Italian rabbi and educator; born in Cuneo, Piedmont, Jan. 11, 1805; died in Padua July 9, 1871. His father, Solomon Jehiel Raphael ha-Kohen, died in 1807; and Lelio was brought up by his uncle R. Sabbatai Elhanan Treves, a rabbi in Piedmont. From 1823 to 1829 he acted as tutor in Hebrew and in Biblical exegesis in the Collegio Colonna e Finzi founded in Turin by the Jewish community; and in 1827 he was appointed assistant rabbi. When the rabbinical college was founded in Padua in 1829, R. Della Torre was appointed professor of Talmud, homiletics; and pastoral theology, which position he held until his death; in 1869 he occupied for several months, during a vacancy, the rabbinical chair of Padua. Cuneo, his native town, honored him by engraving his name on a bronze tablet among those of the most illustrious citizens of Italy.
Besides his thorough familiarity with all branches of Hebrew literature and Jewish history, R. Della Torre was master of several ancient and modern languages, writing Hebrew, Italian, and French with equal facility. He wrote numerous Hebrew poems, most of which were included in his collection "Tal Yaldut," which, together with a supplement of later compositions entitled "Egle Tal," appeared in Padua in 1868. He was the author also of various articles in Hebrew periodicals, treating mostly of subjects relating to the science of Judaism and written in pure classical Hebrew. They may be found in "Kerem Hemed" (iv. 9), in the new "Bikkure ha-'Ittim," in "Ozar Nehmad" (i.), and in various volumes of "Kokebe." Of his published works the following may be mentioned: "Cinque Discorsi," Padua, 1834; "Della Condizione Degli Ebrei Sotto l'Impero Germanico nel Medio Evo," ib. 1842; "I Salmi Volgarizzati sul Testo Massoretico ed Illustrati con Argomenti e Note. Parte Prima, Testo, Traduzione ed Argomenti," Vienna, 1845; "Preghiere degl' Israeliti. Traduzione dall' Ebraico," ib. 1846; "Orazioni per Ordinazioni Rabbiniche," Venice, 1852; "Poésies Hébraïques," Padua, 1869; "Iscrizioni Sepolcrali," ib. 1870; and "Pensieri sulle Lezioni Sabbatiche del Pentateucho," ib. 1872. His "Orazioni Postume" (Padua, 1879, pp. 189-202) contains an autobiographical sketch and a complete list of his works. |
