Physical
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83 ff., 153:104 mm., light age staining, edges frayed, ff. 31-32 with small loss, ink on paper, beautiful Yemenite block letters with punctuation and cantillation symbols, bound in modern half leather and marbled paper boards. |
Detailed
Description |
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The Book of Psalms called after King David, its Author, who sung them as the Talmud tells us: "A harp was suspended above the bed of David. When midnight came the north wind blew on it and it produced music of its own accord. Immediately David arose and occupied himself with Torah." For generations hence the recital of the whole Book of Psalms has become widespread, whether as an act of piety by saintly individuals, or by groups of unlearned people. For this purpose "societies of reciters of psalms" (hevrot tehillim) were formed, and in recent times a special society has been formed in Jerusalem whereby two separate groups recite the whole Book of Psalms daily at the Western Wall. The psalms are included in their entirety in all large prayer books.
This pocket edition shows obvious signs of usage. Its owners, doubtless, recited it many times as can be seen from the damp stains, probably tears, throughout the text. Jews have recited Psalms for any occasion where mercy from the Heavens was warranted. Yemen, unfortunately, had many such occasions.
For hundreds of years the Yemenite Jewish communities followed their traditional ways of secular and religious life, not being influenced by external trends and currents. Some customs in the Yemenite prayer rites go back to the prayer book of R. Saadiah Ga'on. From the 16th century on the Kabbalah and especially later its Lurianic school and system found its way to Yemen and influenced Jewish literary production in the areas of commentaries to the Bible, prayers, and liturgic poetry. All of this rich history is reflected in this work.
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