View Auction Listing - Ammudei Shesh

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Bidding Information
Lot #		24422
Auction End Date		8/11/2009 11:20:30 AM (mm/dd/yyyy)

Title Information

Title (English)

Ammudei Shesh

Title (Hebrew)

עמודי שש

Author

[First Ed.] R. Ephraim Solomon Luntshit

City

Prague

Publisher

Moses Katz

Publication Date

1617

Collection Information

Independent Item

This listing is an independent item not part of any collection

Description Information

Physical
Description

First edition. 40 ff., 302:190 mm., usual light age and damp staining, extra wide margins. A very good copy bound in modern half leather and marbled paper over boards, corners tipped in.

Detailed
Description

Discourses in ethics by R. Ephraim Solomon b. Aaron Luntshits (Leczyca; 1550–1619), rabbi and renowned preacher. He was known as "Ephraim of Luntshits," the popular pronunciation of Leczyca among Polish Jews. The name "Solomon" was added some time after 1601. In his youth Ephraim was sent to study in the yeshivah of R. Solomon Luria. At an early age he had already gained a reputation as a preacher, in which capacity he traveled to Lublin, Lemberg, Jaroslaw, and other towns. It is not known whether he ever held a regular communal post before he became head of a yeshivah in Lemberg when he was already past fifty. In 1604, he arrived in Prague where he served as president of the rabbinical court and head of the yeshivah, but relinquished his rabbinical post in the last year of his life. As a preacher he was distinguished for his lucid and fascinating sermons. He addressed the heads of the Council of Four Lands when they met in Lublin and was apparently on friendly terms with the leaders of that council on whose recommendation he was appointed rosh yeshivah in Lemberg. R. Ephraim's sermons shed much light on the religious and communal life of the Polish-Jewish community of his time. He railed against the wealthy members of the congregation whose passion for money and luxury caused them to withhold assistance from their needy brethren and he criticized their pretensions to spiritual and religious status on the basis of their commercial success. He said that wealth corrupts and destroys the character of men when they do not appreciate its purpose. At the same time, he complained about the poor who wished to enjoy the charity of the rich without making any effort to provide for their needs. In addition, he attacked certain casuistic methods of talmudic study (pilpul) which often neglected the truth, and the desire for personal aggrandizement among communal leaders. R. Ephraim's sermons were collected and published in various books: Ir Gibborim (Basle, 1580); Olelot Efrayim (Lublin, 1590); Orah le-Hayyim (ibid., 1595); Keli Yakar (ibid., 1602), commentary on the Pentateuch in homiletic style that was subsequently included in various editions of the rabbinical Bible (Mikra'ot Gedolot); Siftei Da'at (Prague, 1610); Ammudei Shesh (ibid., 1617); Petihot u-She'arim (Zolkiew, 1799). He also compiled a book of sermons entitled Rivevot Efrayim, which is occasionally mentioned in his other works. He composed three Selihot in connection with the invasion of Prague in 1611 by the army of the bishop of Passau.

Paragraph 2

... [מאת] ר' שלמה אפרים בן מהר"ר אהרן זצ"ל איש לונטשיץ יצ"ו ר"מ דק"ק פראג.

נדפס בין יח חשון לכ"ב כסליו. דרושים ודברי מוסר הנחלקים ל"ששה עמודים... התורה... העבודה... הגמילות חסדים... הדין... האמת... השלום". פועלי הדפוס: אשר אנשיל בר נפתלי הערציל אלט שוליר מפראג ואברהם בר קלונימוס מהענה.

Reference
Description

CD-EPI 0303336; EJ; H. H. Ben-Sasson, Hagut ve-Hanhagah (1959), 263, index; idem, in: Zion, 19 (1954), 142–66; H. R. Rabinowitz, Deyokena'ot shel Darshanim (1967), 137–49

Associated Images

2 Images (Click thumbnail to view full size image):

Order	Image	Caption
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2

Listing Classification

Period

17th Century:

Checked

Location

Other:

Bohemia

Subject

Homiletics:

Checked

Kabbalah:

Checked

Characteristic

First Editions:		Checked
Language:		Hebrew

Manuscript Type

Kind of Judaica