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[171] ff., 322:212 mm., age staining, marginal repairs to several ff. affecting text on initial and final, ink on heavy paper, Targum in Yemenite square block letters, Rashi in Yemenite script letters. |
Detailed
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Targum Onkelos and Rashi for Genesis and Exodus. The weekly Pentateuch portion is enjoined to be read privately "twice in the original and once in the Targum" (Ber. 8a), a custom which is still maintained to this day. Many include in this reading the commenary of Rashi, as was the custom in Yemen. 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.
Onkelos was a native of Pontus and a relative of the emperor Hadrian, who in about 128 appointed him to an office connected with the rebuilding of Jerusalem as Aelia Capitolina. The Midrash (Tanh. 41a, Mishpatim 3) also refers to him as the son of the sister of Hadrian, although the Babylonian Talmud refers to him as "Onkelos the son of Kalonikus [v. Kalonymus] the son of the sister of Titus." He became converted to Judaism, but before doing so he raised the spirits of Titus that the people of Israel are held in the highest repute in the world to come (Git. 56b, 57a). According to the Tanhuma, when he formed the intention of converting to Judaism, fearing the anger and opposition of Hadrian, he informed him that he wished to travel (to Erez Israel) on business, and Hadrian offered him all the money he needed to remain in Rome. In any case he must have been a person of wealth, and this lends point to the comment of the Midrash (Gen. R. 70:5), to the effect that he asked R. Eliezer b. Hyrcanus whether there was no greater reward for the proselyte than that stated in the Bible, that G-d "loveth the stranger [ger, in mishnaic Hebrew a proselyte] in giving him food and raiment" (Deut. 10:18), pointing out that he was short of neither of these things. R. Eliezer's brusque reply might have discouraged him, but he went to R. Joshua with the same question and R. Joshua replied that it refers to spiritual benefits. His conversion met with the vigorous opposition of the emperor. According to the Tanhuma he "smote him on the cheek"; according to the Talmud (Av. Zar. 11a) he sent four successive contingents of soldiers to arrest him but he succeeded in converting them all to Judaism. Onkelos was a contemporary of Rabban Gamaliel of Jabneh, and a colleague and pupil of Eliezer b. Hyrcanus and Joshua b. Hananiah (cf., above). His relationship with R. Gamaliel was a close one, and when Gamaliel died Onkelos arranged a costly funeral for him, such as was usually reserved for royalty (Tosef., Shab. 7 (8):18; Av. Zar. 11a). He conducted himself with the utmost piety and was particularly meticulous in adhering to the laws of ritual purity, surpassing in this respect even Rabban Gamaliel, applying to ordinary food the rules enjoined for partaking of sacrifices (Tosef., Hag. 3:2 and 3). On one occasion he refused to bathe in the ritual baths of Ashkelon (since he regarded it as heathen territory) and made his ablutions in the sea, while R. Gamaliel (according to one opinion) was not so particular (Tosef., Mik. 6:3). There is one talmudic statement attributed to him (BB 99a) that the faces of the cherubim were turned sideways "as a pupil taking leave of his master."
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