[8], 91 (should say 98) ff., quarto, 220:167 mm. , wide margins, light age and damp staining, old hands. A very good copy bound in modern leather boards, rubbed on edges.

Compendium on the laws of issur ve-heter (dietary laws and forbidden foods), attributed to R. Jonah ben Abraham Gerondi (Rabbenu Yonah, c. 1200-1263), author of Sha’arei Teshuvah. The title page, dated, dinnei basur ve-halav בשר בחלב (544 = 1784), notes that the previous Ferrara edition (1555) had errors, here corrected. There is an introduction and a list of of the entries, in two columns, covering eight pages.

The text, in a single column in rabbinic type, excluding the sha'ar (portal) number and intial words, is divided into sixty sha'arim, each subdivided into numerous sections. For example, the first sha'ar deals with salting and rinsing meat, has twenty two sections, and the third sha'ar, on salting meat in a perforated utensil, has seven sections. Fifty eight of the sha'arim deal with the laws of or related to issur ve-heter. The last two sha'arim are on saving an endangered life on Shabbat and the laws of Yom Kippur in regards to an ill person. It seems that the author intended to write an additonal subjects but did not complete his work. The style is concise, in many ways similar to Isaac ben Meir of Dueren's Sha'arei Dura, but differs, in a number of instances, in its conclusions and introduces customs not mentioned in the other work.

The identity of the author of Issur ve-Heter is not known with certainty. The book is traditionally attributed to Rabbenu Yonah, although he acknowledges that the book contains material from R. Israel Isserlein's (1390-1460) Terumat ha-Deshen. Furthermore, the book also includes references to the Mordekhai, Tur, Agudah, Mahril, Sha'arei Dura, and others, all later then Rabbenu Yonah. It is now generally accepted that the author of this anonymous work was likely Jonah Ashkenazi, a student of R. Isserlein.

Hebrew Description

חיבר אותו אחד ... מאחרונים בתראי דבתראי ... אומרים כי הוא הגאו' ... ר' יונה גירונדי[!] ... נדפם פעם ראשון בעיר פירארה ... וישנו שם הרבה קמשונים. ובפרט שנרשם בסוף הספר הג"ה השייך לספר ובגוף הספר לא נמצא המקום ששם שייך הג"ה זו כ"א במעט מקומות ... לכן הדפסנו אותו בהג"ה ... ותיקון גמור פעם שנית ... שנת דיני ב'ש'ר' ב'ח'ל'ב'

BE alef 1645; Heller 16th Century Book; CD-NLI 0135372