ATTRIBUTED TO). Reumah. [Laws of ritual slaughter]. With commentaries Tzaphnath Paneach and Chezkath Yad by Isaac Onkeneira, designed to align the rulings with those of Maimonides’ Code

Exceptionally Rare Work by Isaac Onkeneira, Colleague of Don Joseph Nasi. Nachshon bar Tzadok, celebrated for his calendrical research and author of numerous responsa was the Gaon of Sura from 871-879 , succeeding Amram Gaon (see EJ, Vol. XII, col. 793). According to the title of the present work, the manuscript of Nachshon Gaon was found in the famed library of Don Joseph Nasi, known later by his title the Duke of Naxos. Both Yaari and Yudlov express the creeping suspicion that Isaac Onkeneira composed not only the commentaries, but actaully the text itself, making this a pseudepigraphic work, one of many such examples in the history of Jewish literature. The title Reumah is laden with double entendres.The Biblical Reumah was the concubine of Nachor, brother of Abraham. Reumah bore Tevach (Gen. 22:24). In Hebrew, the proper name Tevach has the double meaning of “slaughter” (see Yaari), an allusion to the topic of the book. Literally, the name “Re’u mah” signifies “See what” (see top and bottom lines f.29.r.). One ventures that by titling the work “Re’u mah,” Onkeneira was hinting to the anonymous, or what is more, pseudepigraphic character of the work. Moreover, the work concludes with a panegyric to Don Joseph Nasi by the poet Joseph ben Samuel Halevi ibn Hakim (ff.28v.-29r.). Each line of the poem concludes with the word “ro’i” (vision). The poem, as well as the title of the book, may very well allude to the fact that Don Joseph’s palace bore the name “Belvedere,” whose origin is Italian. In the sixteenth century, “belvedere” - really two words, “bel” (beautiful) “vedere” (to see) - was the term for a structure such as a cupola or turret atop a house designed to command a view. Thus, R’eu mah ("see what") was one more way of heaping honor upon the benefactor Don Joseph Nasi. Indeed Onkeneira was director of the yeshivah and synagogue that Don Joseph Nasi maintained at his palace at Belvedere near Constantinople. According to the bibliographies, the collation for Reumah is ff.30. Our copy, with its 29 leaves, rather than being incomplete, is a hitherto unknown variant. Our title differs slightly from the standard title in that the final word is “kodesh” instead of “kodsho.” The main body of our copy, “Basar ne’echal be-shalosh derachim…” commences immediately on the verso of the title, whereas in the standard edition, one finds on the verso an Introduction which extends on to f.2r., while the main body, “Basar ne’echal be-shalosh derachim…” commences only on f.2.v. See JE, Vol. IX, p. 405; EJ, Vol. XII, cols. 837-839; S.H. Kook, “Midrash Mei ha-Shiloach,” Kiryath Sepher, II (1925), pp. 267-9; C. Roth, The House of Nasi: the Duke of Naxos (1948), pp. 175-176; 180-182; 246, n. 22