Imrei Noam [Prayers for various occasions]. Edited by Joseph Shalom Gallego and corrected by Saul HaLevi Morteira.

A rare Menashe ben Israel liturgical text containing many hymns and prayers not published elsewhere. The editor, Josef Shalom Gallego stemmed from Salonika and moved to Amsterdam in 1614 to take up the appointment of Hazzan and teacher of Amsterdam’s K.K. Beth Jacob. He assisted Menashe ben Israel in the role of corrector in the early years of the later’s printing establishment (see Fuks p. 103 n. 30). In 1628 Gallego moved to Eretz Israel. The present volume includes a number of Gallego’s original compositions. Prior to many of the Pizmonim the editor records the name of the Lachan (melody) to which it should be sung, stemming from Ladino, Turkish and other song-books. Of particular historical interest are prayers composed for the Provencal community of Salonika, and a special Kinah (lament) memorializing the 120 Jews murdered in Salonika “printed in smaller letters so as to shield the [mourners] from the eye of the beholder” - i.e. not to arouse a bad omen (see ff. 139-140). An apology for the likelihood of printing errors appears in the epilogue “since our printing press was just recently established.” See T. Beeri, R. Joseph Shalom Gallego, Author of Imrei No’am: A Cantor from Salonika in Early 17th-Century Amsterdam in: Assufot Vol. VI (1992) pp. 87-150.