Detailed
Description |
|
Discourses and kabbalisitic commentary on Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) by R. Elisha ben Gabriel Gallico (d. 1583). R. Gallico, one of the sages of Safed in the sixteenth century, was one of R. Joseph Caro's foremost students and later became a member of his bet din. R. Gallico's name appears in R. Caro's Avkat Rokhel, and in one instance "is a co-signer of a responsum. He was also a co-signer, in conformity with R. Caro's instructions, after the latter's death, of the ban against R. Azariah de Rossi's Meor Einayim (Mantua, 1573-74). R. Gallico, who became a member of R. Moses di Trani's bet din after the death of R. Caro, was the head of a large yeshivah in Safed, counting among his students R. Samuel Uceda and R. Joseph Benveniste.
The title page of Be'ur Sefer Kohelet has an architectural frame and brief text, which states that it is "Be'ur Sefer Kohelet, by the sage, the complete, the gaon, R. Elisha Gallico, head of the mesivtah in Safed. Printed at the press of Giovanni di Gara; Venice." The title page is undated. However, the colophon has a completion date, Tuesday, 6 Tishrei, 5338 (September 27, 1577).
There is a long introduction from R. Gallico, followed by the commentary. The text of Kohelet is not printed with the Be'ur. The initial text word is set in an ornamental frame and the text is in a single column in rabbinic type. At the end of the book (183b) is the apology of the editor, R. Samuel Archivolti, for any errors, type having been set by non-jews on the Sabbath and festivals. This is followed by a page of verse; also from R. Archivolti, in praise of the book.
R. Gallico also wrote commentaries on all of the Megillot. Among those published are the commentaries on Esther (Venice, 1583) and the Song of Songs (Venice, 1587). His responsa, no longer extant, are quoted by R. Hayyim Benvenisti (Keneset ha-Gedolah).
Although published first, the Be'ur Sqer Kohelet was likely one of the last of the commentaries on the Megillot written by R. Gallico, for he refers to his other commentaries on the Megillot in the introduction. An exception is the commentary on the Song of Songs, written later, for there R. Gallico refers to his commentary on Ecclesiastes. R. Gallico's date of death is normally given as c. 1583. David Tamar suggests an earlier date, noting that di Trani, in his autobiography (in manuscript), gives R. Gallico's date of death as 1578, and based on references to other Safed sages in R. Gallico's commentaries. |
| Paragraph 2 |
|
לחכם ... כמהר"ר אלישע גאליקו נר"ו: ריש מתיבתא בצפת ...
קולופון: ותשלם המלאכה ... בששי לחדש תשרי השל"ח. דף קמג, ב: התנצלות המגיה, ר' שמואל ארקוולטי. דף [1] בסוף: שחר בעפעפיו הכי נשקף כאור שמש להאיר דברי קהלת [שיר בשבח הספר מאת המגיה]. עיין: אוצר השירה והפיוט, ג, עמ' 444, מס' 836. |
