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Hozek Yad, R. Solomon ben Samuel ibn Muvhar, Odessa 1865

חזק יד - Karaite - Only Edition

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Details
  • Lot Number 52984
  • Title (English) Hozek Yad
  • Title (Hebrew) חזק יד
  • Note Karaite - Only Edition
  • Author R. Solomon ben Samuel ibn Muvhar
  • City Odessa
  • Publisher Moses Eliezer Belinsohn
  • Publication Date 1865
  • Estimated Price - Low 200
  • Estimated Price - High 500

  • Item # 2284137
  • End Date
  • Start Date
Description

Physical Description

Only edition. [4], 228 pp. quarto 247:165 mm., wide margins, usual light age staining. A very good copy bound in modern cloth over boards.

 

Detail Description

Only edition of this unusual and clever versified digest of the Rambam’s (R. Moses ben Maimon) Mishneh Torah (1135-1204). The title page describes it as the piskei rabbenu Moses ben Maimon in his Yad Hazakah in the manner of verse. It descrbes R. ibn Muvhar as one of the Sephardic rabbis in the time of R. Solomon Algazi (1673–1762), and that he wrote the introduction and verse to R. Algazi’s Ahavat Hayyim, as noted by the Hida in his Shem ha-Gedolim. Hozek Yad was brought to press by Zerah with the permission of his father Abraham ben Samuel Firkovich. There are approbations from R. Bezalel ben Moses ha-Kohen and R. Moses Nehemiah, an introduction from Abraham Firkovich, errata, a lengthy dedication to Solomon, the introduction, and the text, which is on several books of the Mishneh Torah. Hozek Yad is comprised of the basic text of the Mishneh Torah in square letters in the middle of the page and about it in rabbinic letters the commentary. In the introduction Zerah Firkovich asserts that his father, although a Karaite, collects rabbinic manuscripts and shows great respect to both Rabbinic and Karaite authors.

The source of the manuscript from which Hozek Yad was printed, as noted on the title page, was Abraham ben Samel Firkovich (1787–1874). He was a Karaite public figure in Eastern Europe. Firkovich was born in Luck (Lutsk), Poland and, after his marriage in 1808, worked as a miller. In 1813 he began to study Torah with the Karaite scholar Morekhai Sultanski. In 1822 he moved from Lutsk to Evpatoria (Crimea) and was appointed hazzan of the local community. In 1825 he submitted a memorandum to the Russian government in which he suggested resettling Rabbanite Jews from the border areas in order to prevent them from smuggling and force them into agriculture. In 1830 the Karaite hakham Simhah Babovich hired him as a tutor for his children and as his secretary to accompany him in his pilgrimage to the Land of Israel. During their visit to Jerusalem, Hebron, and Cairo Firkovich bought and copied many ancient books. In 1831–32 he moved to Istanbul, where he served as hazzan, shohet, and melammed. Following a conflict with the community there he returned to Evpatoria (Gozlow), where he organized a society for the publication of Karaite books. In 1834 he was appointed head of the Karaite publishing house there and published his biting anti-rabbinic book Hotam Tokhnit, accusing Rabbanites of crucifying Jesus and killing Anan ben David. In 1839 M. Vorontsov, the governor general of the Novorossya region and the Crimea, addressed a series of six questions to Babovich, who had become head of the Karaite Spiritual Council. These dealt with the origins of the Karaites and the time of their settlement in the Crimea, their character traits, occupations, important personalities, historical sources about their origins, time of their separation from the Rabbanites, and the differences between them. Babovich then recommended Firkovich investigate these questions and the latter initiated his archaeological and other expeditions in the Crimea and the Caucasus, uncovering ancient tombstones and manuscripts in order to produce an account of Karaite history. His main work, Avnei Zikkaron (1872) describes his travels and contains a collection of tombstone inscriptions with several pictures of these tombstones appended. In the course of his work Firkovich created a new concept of the origins of the Crimean Karaites, according to which they settled in the Crimea in 6 B.C.E.; therefore they could not share the responsibility for the crucifixion of Jesus. Firkovich wished to convince the authorities that the Karaites were a separate nation which differed historically, culturally, and anthropologically from the Rabbanites. He was the first Karaite author to apply a "scientific" research methodology to ameliorate the legal status of his congregation. To substantiate his claims Firkovich fabricated colophons and falsified some of the tombstone inscriptions. He changed the real dates on the tombs to earlier ones. He also "invented" some great figures of Karaite history, suchas Isaac Sangari (identified in a late medieval source as the sage ("haver") who in Judah Halevi's account in the Kuzari converted the king of the Khazars to Judaism). In Firkovich's version, Sangari converted the Khazars to the Karaite version of Judaism and died in Chufut-Qaleh.

Yet within a year of Firkovich's death, a controversy raged over the authenticity of the Firkovich material. Such prominent scholars as A. Harkavy, H. Strack, P.F. Frankl, and A. Kunik claimed that Firkovich's collections abounded in forgeries and fabrications. Even D. Chwolson, his most sympathetic critic, had to admit the general unreliability of Firkovich's manuscripts. Nevertheless, the manuscripts that he amassed were used or published by several well-known scholars in their studies about the Karaites. (S. Pinsker's Likkutei Kadmoniyot (1860) was based on Firkovich's materials; Fuerst and Graetz also unhesitatingly used this material.) Discussions of the authenticity of his materials stimulated the development of Jewish studies in Russia and Western Europe. His manuscript collection is considered to be one of the most valuable collections of Hebrew manuscripts worldwide. Firkovich sold his first collection containing over a thousand Rabbanite, Karaite, and Samaritan manuscripts and Torah scrolls from the Crimea, Caucasus, and Middle East to the Imperial Library in St. Petersburg in 1862 and in 1870. His second collection, containing over 15,000 items, was sold after his death (1876). Most items originated in the Genizah of the Karaite synagogue in Cairo, which Firkovich visited in 1864. It is the largest collection of its kind in the world. These collections and his private archive, which are housed in the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg, were opened to researchers only after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Most of the material is available in microfilm at the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem.

 

Hebrew Description

והוא פסקי רבנו משה ב"ר מיימון ז"ל בידו החזקה (ספר מדע, אהבה, משפטים). מיוסד בדרך שיר ... חוברו ... על ידי ... ר' שלמה בן ... מוה' שמואל ן' מובחר זצ"ל, חד מרבני הספרדים בזמן ... מהר"ש [ר' שלמה] אלגאזי ז"ל ... ספר הראשון, מהמון ספרי כ"י הנמצאים באוצר ... לאב"ן רש"ף (אברהם בן שמואל ... פירקאוויץ) נר"י. נדפס כעת בפעם הראשונה ... על ידי המביא לבית הדפוס אני זרח ברשות א"א ... ר' אברהם ירושלמי שליט"א הנודע פירקאויץ ...

ההסכמות ניתנו למדפיס. הלכות הרמב"ם בדרך שיר וסביבו פירוש. בתוך הפירוש מובאת (עמ' 43-34) מתוך כתב-יד "תשובת הרב (רבי שמעון בר צמח [דוראן]) בעל התשב"ץ ז"ל ... על מה שנהגו בכל קהלות ישראל בכל הדורות לתת פרס לחכמים וגדולים". התשובה נדפסה לראשונה בספר התשב"ץ [אמשטרדם תצ"ח-תצ"ט], א, סימנים קמב-קמז. ב"דברי המוצאות אל עין הקורא" שבראש הספר, מספר אברהם פירקאוויץ גם על מסעותיו ועל אוצר ספריו.

הסכמות: ר' בצלאל ב"ר משה הכהן, ווילנא, יד טבת תרכ"ו; ר' משה נחמי' [כהניו] מחאסלאוויטש, ירושלים, יח כסלו תרכ"ו.

 

References

BE yod 465: EJ; Bibliography of the Hebrew Book 1470-1960 #00 0106243