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Bidding Information
Lot #    23630
Auction End Date    6/9/2009 11:18:00 AM (mm/dd/yyyy)
          
Title Information
Title (English)    Pirkei Avot - Minhah Hadashah
Title (Hebrew)    פרקי אבות ע'פ מנחה חדשה
Author    [Avot - First Ed.] R. Jehiel Michael Morawczyk
City    Cracow
Publisher    [Isaac Prostitz]
Publication Date    1576?
          
Collection Information
Independent Item    This listing is an independent item not part of any collection
          
Description Information
Physical
Description
   First edition. 84 ff., 181:139 mm., light age staining, nice margins. A very good copy bound in modern full leather over boards, tooled in blind.
          
Detailed
Description
   Commentary on Pirkei Avot from R. Jehiel Michael ben Jedidiah, known as R. Michael Morawczyk (d. 1593). His surname, Morawczyk מארפטשיק Morawtschik, Morawczik), is probably indicative of the family's origin in Moravia. He is best known for Minhah Hadashah on Pirkei Avot.

The title page has the Prostitz frame made up of vine-covered pillars, with the verse "Hear, you children, the instruction of a father" (Proverbs 4: 1) at the top. The text states, "Pirkei Avot with commentaries gathered from the tens of the shields of 'the holy and excel­lent ones who are in the earth' (paraphrase of Psalms 16:3), Ravan (Eliezer ben Nathan), Rashi, Rambam, Rabbenu Obadiah Bertinoro, Don Isaac Abrabanel, Pirkei Moshe, Bet Lehem Yehudah, Lev Avot, and also the commentary of two orders of old parchment .... " Below is "Minhah Hadashah." The name of the printer is lacking, but is attributed to the Prostitz press due to the like fonts and paper stocks.

The volume is made up of R. Morawczyk's introduction (lb-3b), an introduction to Avot (4a-5a), the text (5b-8lb), and likkutim (82a-84b). Initial words of chapters 1, 4, 5 and 6 are in a decorative frame. R. Morawczyk begins his introduction, "One who wishes to be pious should [fulfill the words of [Nezikin. Rava says] the words of Avot" (Bava Kamma 30a). Therefore he has brought a minhah hadashah for the public benefit, with the Zohar, Talmud, Midrash Rabbah ve-Zuta, and Avot de-Rabbi Nathan, to instruct the manner in which one should go, all in a clear language. The paragraph concludes with R. Morawczyk's name and, "Thursday, parashat (Vayeitzei) 'And, behold, I am with you, and will keep you in all places where you go'" (Genesis 28:15). In the second paragraph R. Morawczyk asks several questions, among them, "why the [holy city] of Safed is inhabited and is adorned with the crown of Torah and a good name more than the cities of Erez Israel." In the likku­tim he writes that he found in the Zohar that Safed's greatness can be attributed to the fact that it was the first city destroyed after the death of Joshua and it was called Hormah (ref. Judges 1: 17) and they did not leave any of its inhabitants alive and removed all the defilement from it, which is not found for any other city after the death of Joshua, from which he finds an allusion to the rebuilding of Zion.

In the epilogue (81 b) we are informed that R. Morawczyk concluded the commentary erev Shavu'ot in Cracow in 336 (5 Sivan = Thursday, May 13, 1576) and therefore entitled the work Minhah Hadashah for the two wave loaves (ref. Leviticus 23: 1 7) brought at that time, Torah she-bi-Khetav and Torah she-be-al Peh, that is, the written Torah and the Oral Torah.

Minhah Hadashah, the first Polish edition of Pirkei Avot, was reputedly also printed in Lublin (1576) and reprinted in Cracow (1590), but both of these editions are question­able. Minhah Hadashah was in fact reprinted in Frankfort a. M. (1722) by Johann Koelner. R. Morawczyk's other works are Birkat ha-Mazon, Zemirot, and Perushim (Cracow, 1580, 1597); a halakhic monograph, Seder Berakhot (Cracow, 1582); a commentary on the Minhagim of R. Isaac Tyrnau (Cracow, 1660); and the Gezerat Oestreich (Cracow, 1582), a Hebrew trans­lation of the German Wiener Geserah.

          
Paragraph 2    עם פירוש מלוקט מעשרה שליטי'... רא"בן, רש"י, ורמב"ם, ורבינו עובדיה ברטינור"ה, ודון יצחק אברבני"ל [נחלת אבות, קושטא רס"ו] ופרקי משה [לר' משה אלמושנינו, סאלוניקי שכ"ג] ובית לחם יהודה [לר' יהודה לירמה, ויניציאה שי"ג] ולב אבות [לר' שלמה לבית הלוי, שאלוניקי שכ"ה]. וגם מפירוש שני סידורים קלף ישנים ... מנחה חדשה, ([מאת] יחיאל בר ידידיה ז"ל ה"ה המכונה מיכל מארפטשיק).

דף פב-פד: ליקוטים. ידוע בשם "מנחה חדשה". העורך השתמש בין השאר ב"פירוש ישן נושן על קלף, כתב ידו של ראב"ן, שנכתב בשנת תתק"ה לפ"ק", וקטעים ממנו שולבו בספר. על פירוש זה עיין: ש"י שפיצר, מבוא לפירוש הראב"ן אבות, בתוך: מסכת אבות עם פירוש רש"י, בני ברק תשנ"ב, עמ' ז.

          
Reference
Description
   CD-EPI 0151134; Heller, 16th Century Hebrew Book pp. 646-7
        
Associated Images
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Listing Classification
Period
16th Century:    Checked
  
Location
Russia-Poland:    Checked
  
Subject
Other:    Avot
  
Characteristic
First Editions:    Checked
Language:    Hebrew
  
Manuscript Type
  
Kind of Judaica