View Auction Listing - Siddur Tephilah

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Bidding Information
Lot #		21792
Auction End Date		11/18/2008 10:10:00 AM (mm/dd/yyyy)

Title Information

Title (English)

Siddur Tephilah

Title (Hebrew)

פלטין בית אל - סידור יעב'ץ

Author

[First Ed. - Liturgy - Kabbalah] R. Jacob Emden

City

Altona

Publisher

The Author

Publication Date

1745-47

Item of
Exceptional
Interest

Checked

Collection Information

Independent Item

This listing is an independent item not part of any collection

Description Information

Physical
Description

First edition. [1], 356, 354-385, 389-415, 417-418; 159 ff., 158:94 mm., nice margins, old hands on titles, light usual age staining. A rare very good set bound in modern full calf boards.

Paragraph 1

Parts I and II of year-round prayer book with commentary by R. Jacob Emden. This highly popular kabbalistic siddur has enjoyed numerous editions. It is many times bound in elaborate bindings and given as an engagement gift to bridegrooms.

Detailed
Description

Parts I and II of year-round prayer book with commentary by R. Jacob Emden (pen name Yavez; derived from Ya'akov Ben Zevi; 1697–1776), rabbi, halakhic authority, kabbalist, and anti-Shabbatean polemicist. R. Emden was regarded as one of the outstanding scholars of his generation. R. Emden's teacher was his father R. Zevi Hirsch Ashkenazi (Hakham Zevi). He inherited his father's interest in secular studies, his dissociation from the Ashkenazi method of study (pilpul) and customs, his stormy, independent, and uncompromising character, and his devotion to the campaign against the Shabbateans and their sympathizers. In addition, he possessed a fine literary talent, a critical tendency and a knowledge unusual for his age of general non-halakhic Jewish literature. He was also familiar with sciences and languages (German, Dutch, Latin). Despite his distinguished descent and his remarkable talmudic attainments, R. Emden occupied no official position, with the exception of a few years as rabbi of Emden (1728–1733). This made it possible for him to be exceptionally critical toward the society and the tradition of his time. He was more on guard about anything that he considered hillul ha-Shem (bringing the name of the Jew into disrepute) than for the good name of the rabbinate and of the community. He made extensive use of the private printing press he founded in Altona to disseminate his views. As a result, because of his views on a number of issues, both personal and communal, he became a figure widely respected, feared, and contentious.

His main historical importance lies in his campaigns against the Shabbateans to which he dedicated many years. He relentlessly examined and investigated every suspicious phenomenon pertaining to the sect. He called upon the contemporary rabbis to publish excommunications and mercilessly attacked anyone suspected of supporting or showing sympathy to the Shabbateans. The Shabbateans were accustomed to introduce hints of their secret doctrine into their literary works, particularly in the field of Kabbalah. Consequently, R. Emden became an expert in uncovering such allusions and hidden meanings, and developed an extraordinarily sharp critical faculty by which he could recognize any suggestion of the Shabbatean heresy. Many books in which no one saw anything to which objection could be taken, were condemned by him as heretical. Though at times he was at fault and suspected the innocent without cause, his judgment in general was sound.

Paragraph 2

העומד על שבעה עמודי שמים, ונקרא גם אור שבעת הימים, הוא ספר ראשון מציור בנין טירת מלכו של עולם... הנהגה >מסודרת לחיי האדם הישראלי<... ע"פ התורה והמצוה... וסובב על קוטב ימי השבוע... ותהי ראשית מלאכתו בסדר אין זה כי אם בית א-להים נהלך ברגש [פרשת ויצא]...

סידור כמנהג אשכנז המזרחי (מנהג פולין), עם ביאור רחב, מאת ר' יעקב עמדן, בשלושה חלקים. [א]: עם השער הנ"ל. לימות החול ושבת. בשנת ב'ר'ג'ש' [תק"ה]. [1], שנו, שנד-שפה, שפט-תטו, תיז-תיח דף. בסוף ההקדמה: "והיתה התחלתו... בכסלו שנת ולו י'ק'ה'ת' עמים [תק"ה]". [ב]: ארמון עיר הא-להים, פתוחה לי"ד שערים... שערי שמים, ונקרא גם אור החמה. הוא ספר שני... לתקופת הימים, חדשי השנה... שנת ו'א'ש'ר'ו' אתכם כל הגוים [תק"ז]. קנט דף. כולל תפילות לראש חודש ולמועדים.

הסכמות: ר' יחזקאל ב"ר אברהם קצנעליפוגין, אלטונה, ראש חודש טבת תק"ז. (חלק א); ר' ארי' ליב [ב"ר שאול], אמשטרדם, כג אלול תק"ז (סוף חלק ב).

Reference
Description

Isaac Raphael, Kitvei Rebbe Ya'acov Embdin p. 266, # 3; EJ; M. A. Wagenaar, Toledot Yavez (1868), CD-EPI 0310002; M. A. Wagenaar, Toledot Yavez (1868); Y. Raphael, in Aresheth, 3 (1961), 231–76

Associated Images

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Listing Classification

Period

18th Century:

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Location

Germany:

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Subject

Liturgy:

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Characteristic

First Editions:		Checked
Language:		Hebrew

Manuscript Type

Kind of Judaica