View Auction Listing - Siddur Bet Ya'acov

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Bidding Information
Lot #		24989
Auction End Date		10/27/2009 11:18:30 AM (mm/dd/yyyy)

Title Information

Title (English)

Siddur Bet Ya'acov - Sefard

Title (Hebrew)

סידור בית יעקב (יעב'ץ) - נוסח ספרד

Author

[Liturgy - Unrecorded] R. Jacob Emden

City

Zhitomir [i.e. Warsaw]

Publisher

Israel Alapin

Publication Date

1880

Collection Information

Independent Item

This listing is an independent item not part of any collection

Description Information

Physical
Description

210; 211-268, 108, 69-129, 20, 34 ff., 223:144 mm., age and damp staining. A good copy bound in modern boards.

Detailed
Description

Reprint of first edition in Sefard of the Yavez year round prayerbook. R. Jacob Emden (pen name Yavez; derived from Ya'akov Ben Zevi; 1697–1776), rabbi, halakhic authority, kabbalist, and anti-Shabbatean polemicist. Yavez was regarded as one of the outstanding scholars of his generation. Yavez'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 of contention. His important halakhic works are: Lehem Shamayim, on the Mishnah (pt. 1, 1728; pt. 2, 1768); a letter of criticism against R. Ezekiel Katzenellenbogen, rabbi of Altona (1736); responsa, She'elat Yavez (2 pts. 1738–59), Mor u-Kezi'ah, on the Shulhan Arukh, OH, (2 pts., 1761–68). In addition, he published an important edition of the prayer book (whose parts had different names) with a valuable commentary (1745–48). This prayer book was reprinted several times. 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

כמנהג ספרד ... שחיבר הרב ... יעקב ... בן ... מהו' צבי אשכנזי ... מלא ... דינים מחודשים והנהגות האר"י [ר' יצחק לוריא] ז"ל ופירושים מתוקנים בנגלה ונסתר, ודינים השייכים לתפלה והנהגות ... וסדר עבודת המקדש בכל יום, ודקדוק נוסח התפלה ... ויקרא את שמו בית אל ... וקוראים אותו סידור עמדין, סידור יעבץ. לזה הסבותי את שמו בשער החיצון הלז על שם המחבר ... נוסף עליו דברים רבים ... גם שיר היחוד עם פי' יעב"ץ ... חלק א-ב.

חלק ב (דף ריא ואילך): ארמון עיר האלהים ... שערי שמים חלק שני ... אזהרה מר' משה שו"ב (רוזנברג) מזיטומיר בדבר "השגת גבול" נדפסה מעבר לשער חלק א. הוא גם הוסיף הקדמה קצרה, בלתי חתומה, בשער ב: "וראיתי כי סדור הגאון ז"ל מונח בקרן זוית, ושיערתי שזה לד' סבות ... א. שהוא כספר החתום למרבית הראשי תיבות שבו, ב. שאין בו כל התפלות ופיוטים הנהוגים כעת, ג. שאין בו הרבה דינים נחוצים מאוד שנתאספו ... מימי הגאון ז"ל עד עתה, ד. כי הראשונים תמו ואינם, והנדפס מקרוב בלבוב [1863] נלקה מאוד ... ה. ... שהגאון ז"ל סדרו בנוסח אשכנז ... אזרתי חיל ותקנתי כ"ז [כל זה] ...וגם סדרתי' בנוסח ספרד ואשכנז".

Reference
Description

M. A. Wagenaar, Toledot Yavez (1868); Y. Raphael, in Aresheth, 3 (1961), 231–76; EJ; Not in CD-EPI

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