Sha’ar Bath Rabim [prayers for the entire year].

A fine, wide-margined set in a baronial binding This sumptuous and extraordinarily large Machzor was printed for the use of the chazan at the request of the Aschkenazic congregations of a number of leading Italian communities: Venice, Padua, Rovigo, Verona, Mantua, Casale Monferrato, and Gorizia. Because of the enormous expense involved in this publishing endeavor, preceding the volume’s customary rabbinic endorsements, two Italian magisterial documents appear, providing copyright protection for twelve years. In his commentary, R. Isaac Segal, who served as cantor in the town of Herlisheim, not only reflects upon the texts of the prayers, but also provides a compilation of laws and customs based on Aschkenazic source material. Segal defends the recitation of the somewhat controversial piyut Mal'achei Rachamim – that beseeches God via the mediation of angels. The issue is treated at length by R. Isaac Lampronti in his encyclopedic work, Pachad Yitzchak, s.v. tzerachav. For a full discussion, see S. Sprecher, "Ha-Pulmus al Amirath Machnisei Rachamim" in: Yeshurun, Vol. III (1997), pp.706-729