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Commentary on Avot by one of the sages of the gerush Sefard, R. Joseph ben Hayyim Jabez. The title page notes that this is the first printing since the initial issue in Adrianople by the author’s sons in 1536. This edition is published due to the efforts of R. Aaron, av bet din, Atshakov. There are approbations from R. Abraham Jacob ben Israel Friedman of Sandigor, R. David ben Mordecai Twersky, R. Solomon Zalman Pinsker, and R. Joseph Yuspa Segal Efrati, R. David Ortenburg, and R. Jacob Margulis of Berditchev. It is followed by introductions from R. Aaron and the printer. The text is comprised of Avot on the top of the page in square letters and below it the commentary in rabbinic letters,
R. Joseph ben Hayyim Jabez, (d. 1507), Hebrew homilist and exegete. From the prefaces to some of his works, it seems that after the expulsion from Spain in 1492, Jabez traveled to Lisbon, to Sicily, and then to northern Italy, after a brief stay in Naples, arriving in 1493 or 1494 in Mantua, one of the largest and most cultured Italian-Jewish communities. There he remained and was honorably accepted as part of that community, apparently as its official preacher. Both in his travels and in Mantua, he preached about the meaning of the catastrophe that had befallen Spanish Jewry.
Among his published works, most of which were written after the expulsion, are four theological-homiletic compositions, which treat three main questions: Ḥasdei ha-Shem (Constantinople, 1533), on the Diaspora and messianic expectations; Or ha-Ḥayyim (appended to Ma'amar ha-Aḥdut, Ferrara, 1554; separately Shklov, 1796), on Jewish philosophy and its influence upon the fate of Spanish Jewry; and two short treatises (published with the first edition of Or ha-Ḥayyim), "Ma'amar ha-Aḥdut" (Ferrara, 1554) and "Yesod ha-Emunah" (appended to Ma'amar ha-Ahdut), on the ikkarim, the "dogmas" of Judaism. In asserting that philosophical rationalism was to blame for the choice by so many Spanish Jews of conversion rather than exile and suffering, he expressed the feeling of many of his contemporaries. R. Jabez – who hated philosophy – maintained that the philosophical intellectuals did not consider the observance of the commandments as the most important aspect of religious life, and therefore were not prepared to sacrifice themselves for that observance. He did not attack Maimonides directly, but accused Maimonides' pupils and followers of distorting his views and thus of bringing the religious catastrophe upon Spanish Jewry.
Similarly, in his treatment of the question of the ikkarim, R. Jabez opposed all his predecessors who attempted to formulate a rational basis for the dogmas of Judaism, claiming that rational proof of a dogma leaves no room for religious belief. Accordingly, he did not include the existence and unity of God – which, he maintained, can be rationally proved – among the three main dogmas he proposed, namely, the creation of the world, divine providence, and the belief in redemption and the coming of the Messiah. Although polemics against many contemporaries comprise much of his writing, Ḥasdei ha-Shem contains elements of hope in its description of the exile as necessary for the expiation of the people's sins, and the great Jewish sufferings in his own day as indicative of the approaching redemption. Besides these theological works, all printed in several later editions as well, R. Jabez' writings include a commentary on the tractate Avot (Constantinople, 1533), one on Psalms (Salonika, 1571), and many other works still in manuscript.
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[עם הפנים] שחיבר... ר' יוסף [ב"ר חיים] יעב"ץ... נדפס... באדריאנאפאל [שט"ו, בלא הפנים]... ועתה נדפס מחדש, בהשתדלות... ר' אהרן (ב"ר מאיר ז"ל [אקרמאן]) ראב"ד דק"ק אטשאקוב נ"י (יגע בו להגיהו ולתקנו ולציין מקורי המאמרים... עם הוספת חדושיו
[בקונטרס]
בית אהרן [עמ' 171-157])... שנת ויהי דוד לכל ד'ר'כ'י'ו' מ'ש'כ'י'ל'
עמ' 2: הקדמות המביא לדפוס והמדפיס.
המדפיס כותב בין השאר: מאשר אין בכח איש אחד לתקן כל טעיות שנפלו בדפוס הראשון, ע"כ התאמצתי גם אני לעיין על כל מקור הדברים שהובאו בזה, ונעזרתי גם בספר מדרש שמואל על אבות מהרב שמואל [ב"ר יצחק] די אוזידא ז"ל,
מפירושי המחבר... ולרוב הגי[רסא] שם מתוקנת...
עמ' 174-171: גרגר אחד מתשובותי [בדיני כתיבת הגט]... וקראתיו כרוזא קרא בחיל... אהרן ב"ר מאיר ז"ל...
עמ' 174: הערות בנוסח [פיטום] הקטורת.
מההוצאה הבאה (ווארשא תר"ע) ואילך נקרא הספר בשם: מסכת אבות עם פירוש... ר' יוסף יעב"ץ. הסכמות: ר' אברהם יעקב ב"ר ישראל [פרידמאן], סאנדיגור[!];
ר' דוד ב"ר מרדכי [טוורסקי], טאלנא;
ר' שלמה זלמן פינסקער, חערסאן; רבני בערדיטשוב: ר' יוסף יוזפא סג"ל אפרתי, ר' דוד ארטענבערג ור' יעקב מרגליות. |
