Two works in one volume Octavo, 180:124 mm., light age staining, nice margins. A good copy bound in the original blue cloth over boards.

 

Classical work on teshuvah by R. Jonah b. Abraham Gerondi. Sha’arei Teshuvah (Gates of Repentance) is one of the basic works of Judaism on repentance and conduct. It is divided into four portals (sha’arim), namely repentance and its principles; how one may awaken himself to return to God; recognizing the stringency of the mitzvot and the punishments for their violation; and Atonement. Each of these portals is in turn subdivided into smaller units.

R. Jonah ben Abraham Gerondi (Rabbenu Yonah, c. 1200-1263) was a cousin of Nahmanides (Ramban), who married Rabbenu Yonah’s father’s sister, and a student of the brothers R. Moses and R. Samuel ben Shneur Evreux and afterwards R. Solomon ben Abraham of Montpellier. When the latter opposed and placed a ban on Maimonides’ Moreh Nevukhim Rabbenu Yonah was a signatory, an action he later regretted and publicly repented after Maimonides books were burned by the Inquisition. Rabbenu Yonah determined to settle in Erez Israel, but was delayed in Barcelona where he gave discourses for three years. He again set out for the Holy Land, but in Toledo the community induced him to stay and instruct them. Rabbenu Yonah founded a yeshivah there and died before he could complete his journey. Among his students are R. Solomon ben Abraham Adret (Rashba), R. Solomon ben Eli of Sarai and R. Hillel ben Samuel of Verona. It is from the latter that we have biographical information about Rabbenu Yonah.

Sha’arei Teshuvah is Rabbenu Yonah’s most important and influential work. Among the other ethical works written by him are Iggeret Teshuvah (Constantinople, 1548), Sha’arei ha-Avodah (Bnei Brak, 1967), recently discovered and, although the attribution is uncertain, credited to Rabbenu Yonah. He also wrote a commentary on Hilkhot Rav Alfas, compiled by his students, of which only the portion on Berakhot has been published; novellae on Bava Batra and Sanhedrin, as well as on other tractates that are no longer extant; and commentaries on Proverbs and Avot.

Shanghai Imprints - Apart from J.J. Sulaiman's Kunteres Seder ha-Dorot (1921), the main period of Hebrew printing in Shanghai was during World War II and immediately after (1940–46), when remnants of Lithuanian yeshivot (Mir, Slobodka), as well as Lubavitch Hasidim, found refuge in Shanghai and printed – mostly photostatically – rabbinic, ethical, and hasidic works in limited editions for their own use. To the 80 items enumerated by Z. Harkavy (in Ha-Sefer, no. 9, 1961, 52–3; Hashlamot le-Mafte'ah ha-Maftehot (by S. Shunami, 1966), 3–4) have to be added – at least – the above work by J.J. Sulaiman and S. Elberg's Akedat Treblinka (Yid., 1946). Hebrew newspapers were printed in Shanghai as early as 1904.