Physical
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[1], 81 ff., 230:164 mm., wide margind, usual light age and damp staining, ink on heavy gloss stock, 28 lines in double columns per page, beautiful handwriting, signed and dated, bound in contemporary leather, rubbed and split. Numerous inscriptions by previous owners on the end and fly papers. |
Detailed
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Translation and commentary to Pirke Avot written by the scribe for his close friend, Joseph b. Israel, begun on Wednesday 13 Sivan [5]454. Avot became a text for recital in the synagogue, it has been reproduced and reprinted more often than any other talmudic work. It is included in editions of the traditional prayer book. Since it furnishes teachings of what the Jewish sages considered fundamental aspects of life, and because these teachings were expressed in polished epigrams, Avot has been the best known talmudic treatise among non-Jews. It has been translated into Latin, English, French, German, Italian - probably into every language the prayer book has been translated into.
An ancient tradition relates that the Jews of Kurdistan are the descendants of the Ten Tribes from the time of the Assyrian exile. The first to mention this was R. Benjamin of Tudela, the 12th century traveler who visited Kurdistan in about 1170 and found more than 100 Jewish communities. In the town of Amadiya alone, there were 25,000 Jews who spoke the language of the Targum (Aramaic) and whose numbers included scholars.
There is no clear information available on the situation of the Jews during the 13th–15th centuries. From the beginning of the 16th century, however, information gradually becomes more available. The statistics provided by various travelers of different periods indicate great fluctuations over short periods of time in the Jewish population of every town and village. At times, the Jewish population increased or decreased by several hundred within four or five years. The cause for this was the instability of their economic and security situation; consequently, they often migrated from the smaller villages to the larger ones and from there to the large towns. Every pogrom caused the local Jews to flee to neighboring communities - for long or short periods - until the danger was past.
The Jews of Kurdistan spoke an Aramaic with insertions of Turkish, Persian, Kurdish, Arabic, and Hebrew words. They called it the "language of the Targum" or Lishna Yehudiyya ("language of the Jews"), as well as Lashon ha-Galut. The Arabs called it jabali, i.e., "of the mountains," because it was essentially spoken by the inhabitants of the mountains. They called themselves Anshei Targum ("People of [the language of] the Targum").
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