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Bidding Information
Lot #    9581
Auction End Date    3/22/2005 10:00:00 AM (mm/dd/yyyy)
          
Title Information
Title (English)    Birkat ha-Mazon; Minhagim
Title (Hebrew)    ברכת המזון; מנהגים
Author    [Illustrated Liturgy - Haggadah]
City    Amsterdam
Publisher    Isaac de Cordova
Publication Date    1723
          
Collection Information
Independent Item    This listing is an independent item not part of any collection
          
Description Information
Physical
Description
   Two works in one volume. 71; 60 ff., 191:145 mm., usual age and use staining, f. 57 in initial work with small repair affecting several words, lower section of f. 60 and final f. not present. A very good copy of two beautiful books bound in later cloth boards, rubbed.
          
Detailed
Description
   Grace after meals following the custom of Germany and Poland, Sabbath and Holiday songs, full Haggadah, benedictions for various Jewish ceremonies (i.e. circumcision, wedding, etc.) with a Yiddish translation and many initial letters in copperplate illustrations. Bound with;

Sefer Minhagim in Yiddish based of the original edition of Elijah Aboab in the Menasseh ben Israel printing house in 1645. Woodcut architectural title-border; over 30 copperplate illustrations depicting various observances and customs of Jewish religious life throughout the year. Printed in the Netherlands utilizing Waybertaysh type, the type used for Yiddish printing. Unlike the original Amsterdam edition, this edition has the appropriate eight branch menorah. Likewise, the second hand of the man lighting the menorah holds a feather instead of a candle.

R. Isaac Tyrnau (end of 14th century), Austrian rabbi and compiler of a book of minhagim. Tyrnau's teachers were R. Abraham Klausner, R. Sar Shalom of Neustadt, and R. Aaron Neustadt. He was born in Vienna and apparently subsequently moved to Tyrnau in Austria, from where it is possible that he went to minister as rabbi of Pressburg although some scholars deny that he was ever in Pressburg. Little is known about his life except that in 1420 he contacted R. Jacob Moellin regarding a divorce.

R. Tyrnau's fame rests upon his book of minhagim. Basing himself largely on his teacher, R. Klausner, he set down customs and codes of conduct for the whole year, and they were subsequently adopted in most communities in Austria, Hungary, and Styria. As R. Tyrnau wrote in the preface, his aim was to create a common minhag. As a result of the Black Death (1348–50), which had uprooted most of the communities of Germany, "scholars became so few... I saw localities where there were no more than two or three persons with a real knowledge of local custom." His description is concise and his style easy. The book enjoyed great popularity among German and Polish Jewry. Glosses by a Hungarian scholar, whose identity is not certain, apparently were added to the book and published together with it. The first edition was printed in Venice (1566) and has been frequently republished often as an appendix to the prayer book. Similarly a German translation by Simon Guenzburg (Mantua, 1590) has often been reprinted. A legend has been preserved to the effect that the Hungarian crown prince fell in love with the beautiful daughter of R. Tyrnau, and out of love for her renounced the throne, became converted to Judaism, and went to study Torah from Sephardi rabbis. On his return to Hungary he entered into a clandestine marriage with her and continued to study under his father-in-law. His identity was accidentally discovered by Catholic priests who demanded that he revert to his original faith. When he refused he was burned at the stake and the Jews expelled from Tyrnau (Ezba Elo-him, o Ma'aseh Ray she-Eira le-ha-Rav Yizhak Tyrnau; "The Finger of G-d, or What Happened to R. Isaac Tyrnau," the author of Sefer ha-Minhagim, 1857)

          
Paragraph 2    בשנת כ'ל' ה'כ'ת'ו'ב' לחיים בירושלים

נדפס דף-על-דף על-פי אמשטרדם תפ"ב. הציורים זהים בשתי ההוצאות.

          
Reference
Description
   Yudlov 145; CD-EPI 0182591; Vinograd, Amsterdam 1203; 1210
        
Associated Images
8 Images (Click thumbnail to view full size image):
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Listing Classification
Period
  
18th Century:    Checked
  
Location
Holland:    Checked
  
Subject
Customs:    Checked
Liturgy:    Checked
  
Characteristic
Language:    Hebrew, Yiddish
  
Manuscript Type
  
Kind of Judaica