Physical Description

Only edition, [2], 62 ff., octavo, 188:120 mm., light age staining, wide margins. A very good copy bound in modern leather over boards, rubbed.

Copy of R. Mordechai Shmuel Ghirondi Rabbi of Padua. At the top of the title page, handwritten signature: "Mordechai Shmuel Ghirondi of Padua".
R. Mordechai Shmuel Ghirondi (1799-1852), Rabbi of Padua, was a kabbalist, bibliographer, teacher in the rabbinical seminary of Padua and researcher of the biographies of Italian rabbis. He served as rabbi of Padua since 1831, for 21 years. He composed several books on Halacha and ethics, yet is renowned primarily for his book Toldot Gedolei Yisrael U’Geonei Italia (Trieste, 1853). One of the leading Torah scholars of his generation praised his eminence in Kabbalah: "I have never seen anyone well-versed in Kabbalah like the kabbalist R. Mordechai Shmuel… Ghirondi". His son, R. Efraim Refael Ghirondi, describes his father: "A father to the poor… humble like Hillel, brought many to repentance… very well-versed in responsa and Halacha, rabbis of his time posed halachic questions to him, and his wise responsa to them are written in his book of responsa named Kevutzat Kesef which remains in manuscript…".

Stamps of the researcher R. Shmuel Schönblum ("S.S.") on the title page and other leaves.

Detail Description

Polemic against the Shabbatean Nehemiah Hayon by R. Joseph b. Emanuel Ergas (1685–1730), rabbi, kabbalist, and author of books on halakhic and kabbalistic matters. R. Ergas, who was of Marrano descent, was born in Leghorn. The headdress of a knight engraved on his tomb in Leghorn perhaps indicates descent from a noble Spanish family. R. Samuel of Fez was his teacher of halakhah and R. Benjamin ha-Kohen Vitale of Reggio taught him Kabbalah. As a young man, he traveled throughout Italy and preached public sermons, urging repentance. For a while he stayed in Pisa where he founded a yeshivah, Neveh Shalom. Later, he was appointed rabbi in Leghorn, and remained there until his death. R. Ergas became famous for his pamphlet Tokhahat Megullah, the polemic against the Shabbatean Nehemiah Hayon, and an addition to it called Ha-Zad Nahash (London, 1715). A selection of his responsa was published by his disciple R. Malachi Ha-Kohen as Divrei Yosef (Leghorn, 1742). The publisher's introduction mentions several piyyutim written by R. Ergas. R. Ergas was an enthusiastic believer in the importance and sanctity of the Kabbalah in general and of the Zohar in particular, despite his view that marginal annotations had been introduced into the proper text of the Zohar. He opposed philosophy, which he considered alien to Judaism and an invention of heretics. He opposed Maimonides' explanations of the stories of the Creation and the visions of Ezekiel in the spirit of Aristotle's natural philosophy. Ergas' style is distinguished by its clarity.

Hebrew Description

... אשר אזן וחקר ותקן ... ר' יוסף אירגאס נר"ו בכמו"החר עמנואל זצ"ל ... [נגד] המסית הצייד הרמאי אשר בקש להדיח את ישראל בדעותיו הנכזבות ... נחמיא חייא חיון ...בשנת ע'ת'"ה' אל תשלו כי בכם בחר ה'

עם הקדמת המגיה, המניח [ר' משה ב"ר יעקב חגיז].
החיבור "תוכחת מגולה" נדפס ראשונה בשנת תע"ד, והוצאה זו לא הגיעה לידינו. עיין: מ' פרידמן, אגרות בפרשת פולמוס חיון, ספונות, י, תשכ"ו, עמ' תריח, מס' 20.
חייון השיג על הספר בספרו "שלהבת יה", אמשטרדם תע"ד, ואירגאס השיב לו בקונטרס "הצד נחש".
 

References

Vinograd, London 29; Roth, London 8; Bibliography of the Hebrew Book 1470-1960 #000109770; EJ; Joseph ben Emanuel Ergas, Shomer Emunim, ed. by S. A. Horodezky (repr. 1927), introd.; M. Friedman, Letters Relating to the Nehemia Hiya Hayon Controversy, Sefunot, X, 1966, p. 618, no. 20