Physical Description

120 ff., octavo, 177:104 mm., light age staining, nice margins. A verygood copy bound in contemporary quarter leather and marbled paper over boards, rubbed.

Detail Description

Prayers for the ill and deceased. Kizzur Sefer ha-Hayyim is comprised of a series of prayers, many lengthy and confessional, to be recited on behalf of an ill person, deceased, or when visiting a cemetery, primarily the latter instances. The title page describes it as being printed anew with large letters on fine paper with annotations such as were not before, as you can see. With the merit of this we will merit to go up “with singing to Zion” (Isaiah 35:10, 51:11), to see the comforting of Zion and Jerusalem, “to be enlightened with the light of the living” (Job 33:30). The verso of the title page has a prayer to be recited in a mourner’s home after learning prior to saying kaddish. This is followed by introductory material of an ethical and comforting nature and halakhic and instructional matter. Printed with the prayers in a smaller rabbinic font are further pertinent halakhic and instructional matter. The text is followed by a section entitled Sefer ha-Hayyim in Ashkenaz. This section, in Yiddish, is set in Vaybertaytsh. The volume concludes with an index of the prayers.

Hebrew Description