Sha’ar Bath Rabim [prayers for the entire year]. According to Aschkenazi rite. With commentary Hadrath Kodesh by Isaac Halevi

(LITURGY)

Bragadin

Venice

1711-15

Two parts in two volumes (complete). Titles within magnificent engraved border. Introduction by Isaac Pacifico. Additional marginal Hebrew manuscript piyut in an Italian hand included on verso of f.272 of Vol. I. A clean set with wide-margins

Vinograd, Venice 1596

This sumptuous and extraordinarily large Machzor was printed for the use of the Chazan at the request of the Aschkenazi Congregations of a number of leading Italian communities. In his commentary, R. Isaac Halevi who served as Cantor in the town of Herlisheim, not only comments on the texts of the prayers, but also provides a compilation of laws and customs based on Ashkenazic source material. Halevi’s defends the recitation of the somewhat controvesial piyut Malachei Rachamim - beseeching God, through an intermediary. The issue is treated at length by I. Lampronti, citing various scholars, in his encyclopedic work, Pachad Yitzchak (under the entry Tzrachav). For a full discussion, see S. Sprecher, HaPulmus al Amirath Muchnisei Rachamim in: Yeshurun vol. III (1997) pp. 706-729