Physical
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Only edition. [8], 84, 142, 12 ff., 300:198 mm., extra wide margins, dampstained, small tear in title upper margin. A very good copy bound in contemporary lether boards, rubbed. |
Detailed
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Homiletics and novellae on the weekly Torah portions.
R. Hayyim b. Jacob Abulafia (c. 1660–1744), was born in Hebron. About 1666 the R. Abulafia family moved from Hebron to Jerusalem, where R. Hayyim studied with R. Moses Galante and others. In 1699 he went on a mission to Salonika, and in 1712 he served as rabbi in Smyrna and in 1718 in Safed where he remained until 1721, when he was reappointed rabbi of Smyrna, living there for almost 20 years.
R. Abulafia believed in the imminence of the messianic era and considered the restoration of Tiberias, which had been in ruins for almost 70 years, a necessary prerequisite to it. Sheikh Dahir al-'Amr, the ruler of Galilee, invited him to “come up and take possession of the land.” In 1740 he moved from Smyrna to Tiberias. Despite his advanced age, R. Abulafia began rebuilding the city, and he sent his sons and sons-in-law abroad to enlist aid for the restoration.
In 1742–43 war broke out between Suleiman, pasha of Damascus, and Dahir. R. Abulafia encouraged the Jews to remain in Tiberias and gave full support to the sheikh. In the two campaigns which ensued—the first of which ended on the 4th of Kislev 1743 and the second ending with the death of Suleiman on the 5th of Elul—the sheikh was victorious. R. Abulafia declared these two dates as holidays, which the Jews of Tiberias continued to observe annually.
R. Abulafia was a prolific author, but only those of his works which he published while in Smyrna have appeared in print. In addition to Ez ha-Hayyim he published: Yashresh Ya'akov (1729), on the Ein Ya'akov; Mikra'ei Kodesh (1729), on the laws of Passover, on Esther, homilies, and novellae on the Talmud and Maimonides; Yosef Lekah, pt. one on Genesis and Exodus; pt. two on Leviticus (1730); pt. three on Numbers and Deuteronomy (1732); Shevut Ya'akov (1734), on the Ein Ya'akov; Hanan Elohim (1737), on the Pentateuch, appended to Hayyim va-Hesed, by his grandfather, R. Isaac Nissim b. Gamil.
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