Yitzchak ben Mordechai Kimchi. Azharoth LeShavu’oth.

Azharoth, a genre of piyut based on the 613 commandments, are generally recited on Shavuoth. Various authors produced different sets of Azharoth, much the most famous among them being those of Solomon Ibn Gabirol and Isaac al-Bargeloni. Most of the azharoth in this manuscript, however, were authored by the Provençal rabbi and paytan Yitzchak ben Mordechai Kimchi, known in Provençal as Maistre Petit de Nions (see f. 20a.) He was a contemporary of Solomon ibn Adret, many of whose responsa are addressed to him. These azharoth remained in manuscript until most of them were published by Abraham Monteil in his Seder LeShalosh Regalim (Carpentras rite) Amsterdam, 1759. Monteil must have published his version from a different manuscript than the present one, since there are numerous variants and additions here, especially in the commentary, e.g., f. 7a, where this manuscript contains an important six-line introduction by the author to the azharoth for the afternoon prayers of the First Day of Shavuoth. Here, he states that in order to understand the allusions of these liturgical poems one must make a thorough study of the Sepher HaMitzvoth of Maimonides. The first hymn, “Lev Chalal,” is described as a “reshuth” for the morning azharoth of Ibn Gabirol. This reshuth is attributed by Davidson (Lamed no. 244) to Abraham Bar Yitzchak of Carpentras. The manuscript contains as well a piyut titled “Lu Yasiacha,” which it attributes to “Meor Ha-Golah Maistre Leon de Bagnols,” i.e., Levi ben Gershom (Ralbag), whereas in the printed version this hymn is mistakenly attributed to the “author of the Azharoth,” Yitzchak Kimchi. The attribution in this manuscript corroborates S.Z. Halberstam’s note cited by Davidson’s Otzar Vol III “Lamed” no. 559 that it was actually composed by Ralbag, not Isaac Kimchi. A note on ff.4-6a in a different hand concerns the miracle that occurred on 15th Kislev when the Carpentras Jewish community was saved from harm after a troop of armed men entered within the walls. A special Purim was celebrated in Carpentras each Kislev to commemorate this episode of 1512.