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Bidding Information
Lot #    23890
Auction End Date    7/7/2009 10:06:30 AM (mm/dd/yyyy)
          
Title Information
Title (English)    Zove’ah Todah
Title (Hebrew)    זובח תודה
Author    [Only Ed.] R. Mordecai ben Isaac Atsban (Itsban)
City    Constantinople - Morocco - Aleppo
Publisher    Jonah bern Jacob Ashkenazi
Publication Date    1733
          
Collection Information
Independent Item    This listing is an independent item not part of any collection
          
Description Information
Physical
Description		    Only edition. 41 ff. octavo 155:105 mm., nice margins, light age and use staining, old hands. A very good copy bound in contemporary speckled calf over boards, rubbed.
          
Detailed
Description		    Only edition of this rare and unusual ethical work enumerating the mitzvot and confessions of sins (seder viduii) by R. Mordecai ben Isaac Atsban (Itsban). Zove’ah Todah has an unusual title page, the header, larger than the title being the verse “I have set the Lord [always] before me” (Psalms 16:8), the Lord being set in enlarged white letters against a black background. The title page states that it is good for the soul (neshamah) .to give thanks and to improve the spirit of life, the soul (nefesh). There is a detailed introduction from R. Atsban and then the text. Zove’ah Todah is comprised of the mitzvot and their extensions in vocalized Hebrew and below, in rabbinic letters, annotations. The mitzvot are comprised of the mitzvot and branches (anafim). At the end of the volume R. Atsban praises R. Hayyim Ezra Magriso who financed publication of Zove’ah Todah.

R. Mordecai ben Isaac Atsban (Itsban) was one of the sages of Morocco. From Meknes, R. Atsban was a dayyan, known as a kabbalist, and for his piety. He served in the rabbinate in Livorno and Aram Zova, going up to Jerusalem in about 1733. R. Atsban was a disciple of R. Moses Berdogo. The Hida, in his Shem ha-Gedolim (under Zove’ah Todah) describes R. Atsban as a kabbalist and expert in the true wisdom.

          
Paragraph 2    ...לתקן נשמת רוח חיי נפש ... ולפי דרכו עיניו תחזינה להיות בקי בשרשי המצות ... חובר ממני מרדכי אצבאן ס"ט ...

"קונטריס מכל פרטי המצות מדאורייתא ומד"ס [ומדברי סופרים], על סדר האיברי' ... בעקבות ס' חרדים [לר' אלעזר אזכרי], במצות התלויות בלב בפה באוזן בידים ובכל שאר האיברים. ולאמרם בלשון ודוי ופירוט חטאים" (דף ב,א).

          
Reference
Description		    BE zayin 100; Vannunu, Arzei ha-Levanon 3:1507: Yaari, Const. p. 179:339; CD-EPI 0111400
        
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Listing Classification
Period
  
18th Century:    Checked
  
Location
Greece-Turkey:    Checked
Other:    North Africa
  
Subject
Other:    Ethics
  
Characteristic
First Editions:    Checked
Language:    Hebrew
  
Manuscript Type
  
Kind of Judaica