Physical Description

Only edition, [1], 119-165 ff., [16] ms. pp., folio, 290:195 mm., light age and damp staining, wide margins, Sephardic rabbinic script on paper. A very good copy bound in recent boards, rubbed.

Notes are undated and unsigned, bound into a later edition of the work.

Detail Description

Ara de-Rabbanan with 16 manuscript pages of unpublished nated by the author, by R. Israel Jacob b. Yom Tov Algazi (1680–1756), halakhic scholar and kabbalist, grandson of both R. (Nissim) Solomon Algazi and Joseph Hazzan. Probably born in Smyrna, R. Algazi lived in Safed, and for a few years, prior to 1730, in Smyrna. He was a member of a closed circle of kabbalists headed by R. Jacob Vilna. R. Algazi copied and published Hemdat Yamim (Smyrna, 1731–32), with many of his own glosses. By 1737 he was in Jerusalem and, a year later, dedicated "Neveh Shalom Berit Avraham," a yeshivah founded there for him. R. Algazi became head of Bet El, a bet midrash for pietists, and was consequently known as "the pietist rabbi." His was the first signature on the constitution of the kabbalistic group Ahavat Shalom. R. Algazi was appointed chief rabbi upon the death of his colleague, R. Isaac ha-Kohen (1755), but he died the following year. One of the most productive scholars of his time, he wrote many halakhic and homiletic works including: Emet le-Ya'akov (Constantinople, 1764) on the laws of Torah scrolls; Ara de-Rabbanan (ibid., 1745), reprinted with Judah Ayyash's commentary; Afra de-Ara (Leghorn, 1783), a methodology for Talmud and codes; Hug ha-Arez (Jerusalem, 1910; with addenda, 1927), on the laws of Purim; Ne'ot Ya'akov (Smyrna, 1767); Kehillat Ya'akov (Salonika, 1786), a methodology;sermons Part 1 Shema Ya'akov (Constantinople, 1745); and Part 2; She'erit Ya'akov (ibid., 1751). Some of his works are still in manuscript. R. H. J. D. Azulai, who knew him, condensed and completed R. Algazi's work, Emet le-Ya'akov, which he published under the title Le-David Emet (1786).

Ara de-Rabbanan is an alphabetical listing of Talmudic rules and principles by R. Israel Jacob ben Yom Tov Algazi accompanied by the commentary of R. Judah Ayyash entitled Afra de-Ara. The names are appropriate, Ara de-Rabbanan being the land of the rabbis, that is, their methodology, and Afra de-Ara being the dust of the land. There is an introduction from R. Algazi followed by the text, Ara de-Rabbanan on the top of the page and below it Afra de-Ara, both in rabbinic letters.

Hebrew Description

ועם הגהות ותוספות חידושים ... עפרא דארעא מאת ... מוהר"ר יהודה עייא"ש ז"ל ... נדפס עתה מחדש ... גם ההוספות מהדורא בתרא הנדפס לפנים בחוברת אחת בסוף כל המערכות. נערך עתה אחר סדר כל אות ואות בכנוי שם השמטות.

References

EJ; M. Benayahu, Rabbi H. Y. D. Azulai (Heb., 1959), 351ff.;