(HAGADAH)

Bezalel Halevi

Salonika

1749

Malki, Ezra. Malchei ba-Kodesh [Unvocalized text of Passover Hagadah with commentary - as well as novellae on Shulchan Aruch, Hilchoth Pesach, chaps. 429-494 (includes text of Shulchan Aruch); Maimonides, Hilchoth Korban Pesach, Hil. Shophar, Hil. Shevithath Asor, Hil. Lulav, Hil. Tum’ath Meth, Hil. Parah Adumah; R. Elijah Mizrachi and Sepher Mitzvoth Gadol, Hil. Chanukah; and Talmud Bavli, Tractates Berachoth, Ta’anith, Megilah, Pesachim, Sukah, Eruvin, Chulin, Shavu’oth, Sanhedrin]

Vinograd, Salonica 268; Yaari 131; Yudlov 206

Hagadah on ff.1-18: A rare edition R. Ezra Malki was the son of the Italian physician, R. Raphael Mordechai Malki, one of the pillars of the Yishuv at the conclusion of the seventeenth century, and father-in-law of the famous halachists R. Hezekiah da Silva (author “Peri Chadash”) and R. Moses Hagiz (subject of Elisheva Carlebach’s biography, Pursuit of Heresy). Ezra’s brother, R. Moses Malki was the one-time leader of the Safed Jewish community. R. Ezra was sent to Turkey in 1749 as an emissary on behalf of the Safed community. Eventually, he became the Rabbi of Rhodes, where he died in 1768. Malki was a prolific author, besides his first work, the present, Malchei ba-Kodesh, printed during his mission to Salonika, he also authored “Shemen la-Ma’or,” a supercommentary to R. Zerachiah Halevi’s “Ma’or” and Nachmanides’ “Milchamoth Hashem” to Tractate Bava Metzi’a (Constantinople, 1755); as well as a collection of responsa “Ein Mishpat” (Constantinople, 1770) and a collection of sermons “Einoth Mayim” (Salonika, 1811). The latter two works were published posthumously. See A. Yaari, Shluchei Eretz Israel (1977), pp. 438-440