First edition. [2], 206 ff., tall folio, 382:260 mm., extra wide margins, light age and damp staining, heavy regal paper.. A very good copy bound in contemporary blind-tooled leather over wood boards, neatly restored, new matching spine.

First Edition - Luxurious Bibliophile Copy - Dedication and provenances in old hand on fly and title. Among the names are noted members of several important 18th century German families including the Bassheim, Lamsheim, and Hoffheim families.

Benveniste's role in this episode however did not detract from his dignity and authority as one of the greatest of the Jewish codifiers. Among his many disciples were Solomon ibn Ezra, Isaac Algazi, Hayyim Algazi, and Abraham b. Aaron de Boton. His principal work Keneset ha-Gedolah, was accepted by both Ashkenazi and Sephardi rabbis as an authoritative work of great practical value. In his work, which comprises eight large volumes, Benveniste cites and methodically explains all the conclusions and legal novellae to be found in the responsa and other halakhic works of the outstanding authorities after the time of Joseph Caro, as well as some of the decisions of earlier scholars whom Caro had failed to cite.

In Benveniste's lifetime only three parts of the work were printed: on Orah Hayyim (Leghorn, 1658); Sheyarei, addenda on Orah Hayyim (Smyrna, 1671); and on Hoshen Mishpat (part 1, Smyrna, 1660). After his death there appeared the volume on Yoreh De'ah (3 parts, Constantinople, 1711–17); on Even ha-Ezer (Smyrna, 1731, new ed. Lemberg, 1861); on Hoshen Mishpat, part 2, with several appendixes by other authors (Smyrna, 1734). Also his Dina de-Hayyei was published posthumously from a defective manuscript (Constantinople, 2 pts. 1747). Additional legal novellae on the Hoshen Mishpat are to be found in Hayyim b. Menahem Algazi's Benei Hayyai published in Orta-koi (near Constantinople) in 1712. Benveniste also wrote important responsa (Ba'ei Hayyei, "Needs of the Living"), on the four parts of the Turim, the following of which have been published: on Orah Hayyim (part 2, Salonika, 1783), on 211 sections of Yoreh De'ah and on 24 of the Even ha-Ezer (ibid., 1788), as well as on the Hoshen Mishpat, in two parts (ibid., 1791). Benveniste also wrote novellae on a number of tractates: that on Sanhedrin which he called Hamra ve-Hayyei, only part of which is extant, was published, together with notes and extracts from the manuscripts of the novellae of the earlier halakhic authorities, under the title of Hemer Hivver Attik (Leghorn, 1802). Benveniste's son Israel (1644–1729) succeeded him as chief rabbi of Smyrna.

Hebrew Description:

 ...שחבר ... ר’ חיים בנבנשת נר"ו ... מאסף לדברי הפוסקים ראשונים ואחרונים וכמה תשובות מכתיבת יד, מסודרים על סדר רבינו יעקב בעל הטורים והרב ... בית יוסף ... ולהאיר עינינו על כל דבר הנמצא כתוב בשום ספר כדברי ספר החתום ... וחדושא ממילא נפקא לענין דינא. ונוסף עליהם כמה חדושים שחדש מעצמו ונמוקו עמו ... [חלק א-ו].

חלק יורה דעה ... מכל מיני מאכל אשר יאכל אכילת קדשים ויין המשתמר והלכות דנהיגי [סי’ סט-קלח, קס-קעז. הסימנים החסרים (קלט-קנט), הלכות עכו"ם, נדפסו בשיירי כנסת הגדולה, קושטנדינא תע"ז] ... ומחסרון כיס לא היה באפשרי להדפיס יותר ומטעם זה לא נקרב על מזבח הדפוס רק חמש מאות ספרים . קושטנדינא, דפוס נפתלי בן עזריאל מוילנא ויונה בן יעקב [אשכנזי] מזלאזיץ, שנת כ’י’ ש’ם’ צ’ו’ה’ ה’ את הברכה חיים עד העולם [תע"א, 1711]. [2], רו דף.

דף [2, ב]: התנצלות המגיה, ר’ יעקב ב"ר דוד ן’ פורנה.