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Bidding Information
Lot #    21503
Auction End Date    10/7/2008 10:00:30 AM (mm/dd/yyyy)
          
Title Information
Title (English)    Mirkevet ha-Mishneh Part III
Title (Hebrew)    מרכבת המשנה חלק ג
Author    [The Hida Copy] R. Solomon of Chelm
City    Salonica
Publisher    Mordecai Nahaman
Publication Date    1782
          
Collection Information
Independent Item    This listing is an independent item not part of any collection
          
Description Information
Physical
Description		    Only edition. [1], 217; 222, [1] ff., 289:192 mm., light age and damp staining, wide margins, old hands on title. A very good copy bound in modern full leather boards.
          
Paragraph 1    The Hida copy with his signature on title. R. Hayyim Joseph David Azulai (known by his Hebrew acronym HIDA, 1724–1806), halakhist, kabbalist, emissary, and bibliographer. The Hida was born in Jerusalem; he was descended on his father's side from a prominent family of rabbis and kabbalists from Spain while his mother was a daughter of Joseph Bialer who had gone to Erez Israel with R. Judah Hasid in 1770. He studied under some of the outstanding Jewish scholars of his age including R. Jonah Navon, R. Isaac ha-Kohen Rapoport, and R. Hayyim ibn Attar. R. Azulai attained early eminence in Jewish studies and was regarded by the Jewry of the Ottoman Empire and of Italy as the leading scholar of his generation. He was highly esteemed, too, by the Jews of Germany, especially after the publication of his works. Possessed of great intellectual powers and many-faceted talents, he combined a religious and mystical ardor with an insatiable intellectual curiosity. Added to these were critical ability, a facile pen, and a boundless capacity for work. He spent most of his active years traveling abroad as an emissary of the communities of Erez Israel for the collection of funds for the upkeep of the academies and scholars. He ended his mission in 1778 in Leghorn, where he spent the rest of his life. Many stories are related of the wonders and miracles he performed. Pilgrimages were made to his tomb at Leghorn until 1960, thereafter in Jerusalem where his remains were reinterred.
          
Detailed
Description		    Novellae on the Talmud and the Mishneh Torah of Maimonides by R. Solomon b. Moses of Chelm (1717–1781). He was born at Zamosc, son of a wealthy merchant and scholar, under whom he studied. He apparently came under the influence of a circle of talmudists who pursued secular studies, since, according to his own testimony, he acquired an extensive knowledge of algebra, engineering, astronomy, philosophy, grammar, and logic. In his younger years, while still maintained by his father-in-law R. Moses Parnas, he was, according to R. Mordecai of Lissa, "already renowned for his keen intellect, his erudition and his many distinguished qualities and virtues." His first rabbinical position was at Chelm - hence his name. While there, he published in 1751 Mirkevet ha-Mishneh, which immediately established his reputation. He received a call first to serve as rabbi to the community of Zamosc and district in 1767, a post of considerable importance, and then, in 1771, to Lemberg and district. R. Solomon intervened in several disputes, among them the Cleves Get, in which he supported the validity of the divorce document against the rabbis of Frankfort and others who contended that it was invalid. His signature occurs on the Takkanot of the Council of Four Lands for the years 1742, 1751, and 1753. In 1777, after serving in the rabbinate for six years, he resigned, took leave of his family in Zamosc, and set out for Erez Israel. En route he visited Smyrna and Constantinople (in 1779). He reached Tiberias and apparently went to Salonika as an emissary of Erez Israel, where the printing of parts two and three of Mirkevet ha-Mishneh was interrupted by his sudden death. They were completed there a year later with the assistance of a local philanthropist and R. Joseph Zalmona. His Mirkevet ha-Mishneh (part 1, Frankfort on the Oder, 1751; parts 2 and 3, Salonika, 1782 and New York, 1948; part 3, Jerusalem, 1956) contain novellae on the Talmud and the Mishneh Torah of Maimonides, whom he vehemently defended against the criticisms of R. Abraham b. David of PosquiIres. In the introduction, written in polished rhymed prose, he vigorously attacked those who opposed the study of the sciences, and made several hostile allusions to the pietistic and mystic sects of the era before Israel Ba'al Shem Tov. Because of the metaphorical language some scholars thought mistakenly that he referred to the latter's followers. He wrote Sha'arei Ne'imah, on the intonations of Psalms, Proverbs, and Job (Frankfort on the Oder, 1766), republished by Judah Loeb b. Ze'ev as an addendum to his Talmud Leshon Ivri (Vilna, 1816), and a pamphlet entitled Berekhot be-Heshbon on talmudic arithmetic and measures, appended to part 1 of Mirkevet ha-Mishneh. Other unpublished works are Lev Shelomo, consisting of 32 (the numerical value of "Lev") responsa, mentioned by Hida in Shem ha-Gedolim and Hug ha-Arez on the geography of Erez Israel. He wrote a comprehensive halakhic code in ten volumes, based on the Shulhan Arukh, to which he gave the name Asarah Shulhanot ("Ten Tables"). Only two of them were published - Shulhan Azei Shittim, on the laws of Sabbaths and festivals (Berlin, 1762), and Hakham Lev, on the laws of marriage (Jerusalem, 1927).
          
Paragraph 2    ... (על... הלכות מס' משנה תורה להרמב"ם) רבנו משה בר מיימון ... חידושים... ליישב ולתרץ השגות... הראב"ד [ר' אברהם ב"ר דוד מפוסקיר] ... והערות המפרשים הראשונים והאחרונים... ולברר וללבן מקום מוצא הדין מסוגיות הש"ס במקום אשר קיצרו המפרשים... חיברו... ר' שלמה אב"ד דק"ק חעלמא (בהרב ... ר' משה זצ"ל מק"ק זאמשטש)

חלק ג: (הפלאה - שופטים). שאלוניקי, דפוס מרדכי נחמן, בשנת מ'רכב'ת' ה'מ'שנ'ה' אשר לו [תקמ"ב]. [2], ריז; קכב דף. נוסח השער כמו בחלק ב. דף [2,א]: "התנצלות המגיה... ראיתי חילופי גרס[אות] מהעתק הרב ז"ל לכתיבתו כתב אשכנזית... ושמתי ציוני' למען דעת". הציונים נדפסו במפתחות ובלוחות הטעויות, שבשני החלקים.

          
Reference
Description		    CD-EPI 0170517; EJ
        
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Listing Classification
Period
  
18th Century:    Checked
  
Location
Greece-Turkey:    Checked
  
Subject
Halacha:    Checked
  
Characteristic
Autographed:    Checked
First Editions:    Checked
Language:    Hebrew
  
Manuscript Type
  
Kind of Judaica