Physical Description

First edition. [6], 2 blank], 101, [10, 1 blank] pp. octavo 180:125 mm., light age and use staining, paper repairs, some worming (repaired). A good copy bound in modern lather over boards.

Rare - these type of works were heavily used by women and generally did nor survive the test of time - this lot represents a 400 year old copy!

Detail Description

Work in Italian for women on the three areas of ritual obligations specifically incumbent on women - family purity, together with hallah, separating a part of the dough used to make Sabbath loaves, and Hadlakat ha-Ner, kindling Sabbath lights, translated from the Ladino by  R. Abraham Larido.

Family purity (Taharat (Tohorat) ha-Mishpahah), the term popularly given to the laws of niddah, which involve a married couple's abstinence from sexual relations during the period of menstruation until the wife's immersion in the mikveh. These regulations are considered by the Orthodox to be basic to the Jewish way of life and R. Akiva went so far as to declare the son of a niddah a mamzer (Yev. 29b). Although his viewpoint is not accepted as the halakhah, it nevertheless indicates the importance of these laws. In more modern times, many psychological, medical, and physiological reasons have been given for the observance of this precept, and all of them stress the benefits that are gained by the couple practicing abstinence during part of each month. Societies have been organized in many communities for the purpose of instructing people in these laws and supervising the daily functioning of the mikveh.

The precept of setting aside hallah applies to dough kneaded from one of the five species of grain (Hal. 1:1), since only from them can the bread (referred to in Num. 15:19: "when you eat of the bread of the land" etc.) be made. The time of setting aside the hallah is when the kneading is finished. Domestic bread production has always been a largely female task. From the early rabbinic period, "taking hallah" was considered one of three mitzvot (commandments), together with hadlakah (kindling Sabbath candles) and niddah, which women were obligated to perform. These three commandments are known as the HaNaH mitzvot, an acronym of hallah, Niddah, and Hadlakat ha-Ner, which, in a play on words also evokes Hannah, the mother of the biblical Samuel, considered a model of female piety. A number of midrashic sources declare that these obligations are female punishments or atonement for the disobedience of the first woman in the Garden of Eden and her responsibility for human mortality. According to the Mishnah (Shab. 2:6), women who neglect these commandments risk death in childbirth. Popular vernacular tehinnot, supplicatory prayers for women, are recited and offer positive interpretations of this tradition.

Although technically not a commandment specified in the Torah, Hadlakat ha-Ner, kindling lights to usher in the Sabbath and festivals was transformed into an obligation by the rabbis. Kindling lights is a positive time-bound commandment, a category of obligations from which women were traditionally exempted in Jewish law. However, from early rabbinic times, lighting Sabbath and festival lights was considered one of three mitzvot (commandments), together with hallah and niddah, which women were obligated to perform. Jewish women have traditionally taken the observance of kindling Sabbath and festival lights seriously. In the contemporary era, where candles are generally used, women usually light two candles. Some women, who forget for even one week, add an extra candle for the rest of their lives; others add a candle on the birth of each child. Among some groups women do not begin to light their own candles until marriage while among others, such as the Lubavitcher hasidim, even young girls are encouraged to light one candle. Since the candles are lit before the blessing is said, women have traditionally covered their eyes while saying the benediction so that the light will only become visible after the blessing is completed. On Friday night some women make circles with their arms and hands before covering their eyes in a gesture of welcome to the Sabbath queen. Several popular vernacular tekhinnot were written for women to recite after completing the benediction and before uncovering their eyes.

Hebrew Description

Reference

JE; EJ;