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Bidding Information
Lot #    6040
Auction End Date    11/18/2003 11:42:00 AM (mm/dd/yyyy)
          
Title Information
Title (English)    Me'erat Eineim
Title (Hebrew)    שלחן ערוך מטור חשן המשפט עם הביאור מאירת עינים
Author    R. Joshua Falk b. Alexander Ha'Kohen
City    Prague
Publisher    Moses b. Joseph Katz
Publication Date    1628
          
Collection Information
Independent Item    This listing is an independent item not part of any collection
          
Description Information
Physical
Description		    Second edition. 320, 20 ff., folio, 295:194 mm., usual age staining, title frayed in margin, old hands on title. A very good copy bound in modern half leather boards. Rare - early editions of this work were destroyed by the heavy use of rabbinical scholars.
          
Detailed
Description		    Sefer Me'irat Einayim is the fourth part of a more extensive commentary on the Tur and Shulhan Arukh, the first three parts entitled Perishah, Derishah, and Be'urim. The whole commentary is entitled Beit Yisrael (after R. Falk's father-in-law). Because Me'irat Einayim was based on the first three parts of his commentary, it was essential for the reader first to study the Tur and the other three parts of his commentary. Though R. Falk apparently intended to write a work on the whole Shulhan Arukh, he succeeded in covering only the Hoshen Mishpat. The Me'irat Einayim is an extensive exposition and elaboration upon that work, especially upon Moses Isserles' glosses, R. Falk often acting as the intermediary between Joseph Caro and Isserles where they disagreed. Falk's work contributed greatly in making the Shulhan Arukh an authoritative source of codified Jewish law. R. Joshua Falk b. Alexander Ha'Kohen (c. 1555–1614), Polish yeshivah head and halakhist commonly referred to as "Sma" from the initials of the title of his major work. R. Falk was born in Lublin and studied under R. Moses Isserles and R. Solomon Luria, but refused to serve as rabbi of the community. He devoted his life to teaching, receiving financial support from his father-in-law, R. Israel b. Joseph Edels, the communal leader of Lemberg, who also maintained the yeshivah conducted by R. Falk. The yeshivah attracted many pupils, some of whom later achieved fame as rabbis. Famed as a halakhic authority, R. Falk took an active part in the Council of the Four Lands and was one of the signatories in 1587 to the decree against purchasing rabbinical positions. In 1607 he presided over a session of the Council which passed a decree on the subject of interest, which the intensified financial activity among East European Jewry had rendered an urgent halakhic problem. R. Falk's resolute refusal to change his view on a get ("bill of divorce") which he had issued for a seriously ill man, and which R. Meir of Lublin and R. Mordecai Jaffe had declared invalid, led to a vehement clash of opinions among contemporary rabbis, R. Falk being upheld by those assembled at Jaroslaw in 1611. R. Falk's most celebrated work is Sefer Me'irat Einayim, a commentary on the Shulhan Arukh, Hoshen Mishpat, published in all editions of the Shulhan Arukh. He was moved to write the commentary because of the large number of halakhists and exponents of the laws who, in his opinion, "have rent the Torah, which is our garment, into 12 pieces, and because of the many scholars who, content to base their halakhic decisions on the Shulhan Arukh alone without investigating the sources (especially R. Jacob b. Asher's Tur together with R. Joseph Caro's Beit Yosef and R. Moses Isserles' Darkhei Moshe), remained ignorant of the sources and rationale of the law and rendered incorrect halakhic decisions."

R. Falk also wrote Kunteres al ha-Ribbit (1692) on the laws of interest promulgated by the Council of the Four Lands in 1607. Several of his numerous responsa have been published in various collections (Ge'onei Batra'ei, Bayit Hadash, Masot Binyamin). He wrote novellae on 14 tractates of Isaac Alfasi (the Rif) and on the commentary to it by Nissim b. Reuben Gerondi (the Ran), expositions on the Kabbalah and philosophy, and several other works, all of which were destroyed in a fire in Lemberg.

          
Paragraph 2    עם הביאור מאירת עינים ... להאיר בו ... בקיצור, דברי ... מחברי הש"ע והגהותיו, מוהר"ר יוסף קארו ז"ל ומוהר"ר משה ר' איסרלז ז"ל. גם ... חידושים רבי' ... וגם מראה מקו' מוצא כל דין ודין ... נוסף על הראשוני' ... המחבר ... ר' יושע ולק בן הר"ר אלכסנדרי כ"ץ זצ"ל, שהיה יושב ... עם סיעת תלמידיו ... בק"ק לעמבורג ... ובטרם התחילו המדפיסי' להדפיס נתבקש ... המחבר לישיבה על מעלה ועל משכבו ... התקשר על בניו (ר' סענדיר כ"ץ ... ר' [יוסף] יוזפ כ"ץ) ... בצוואתו שיתמידו בלימודם והדפסת ספריו (כל השלשה חלקי' ... בית ישראל) שחיבר על הארבע טורים (חלק ... הרביעי ... פי' על הש"ע ... שמו ספר מאור עינים) ... קולופון: "יום ג פ' ו'ב'ש'פ'טים גדולים [שפ"ח]... וחפשנו ... ספר סמ"ע מוגה להדפיס ... מצאנו ... ספר ... מוגה מאוד. ע"י ... ר' מאיר בר מנחם גנז".

על-פי פראג שע"ד-שע"ה, בהשמטת ההקדמה ודברי-הסיום של המגיה. במקום ההקדמה נדפס דגל-מדפיס ובו: "משפחת הגרשוני", ממנה הועבר הדגל למדפיס משה כ"ץ. עיין: א. יערי, דגלי המדפיסים העבריים, ירושלים תש"ד, עמ' 27 ועמ' 140, ציור 43.

          
Reference
Description		    CD-EPI 0200796; EJ
        
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Listing Classification
Period
17th Century:    Checked
  
Location
Other:    Bohemia
  
Subject
Halacha:    Checked
  
Characteristic
Language:    Hebrew
  
Manuscript Type
  
Kind of Judaica