Drush Le’chag Ha’shavu’oth [sermon for the festival of Pentacost]

KAHANE, TZVI HIRSCH BEN JUDAH LEIB

Bragadin

Venice

1656

FIRST EDITION. This copy with the rare variant title-page. Title within woodcut architectural border

Vinograd, Venice 1317

In his introduction the 25 year-old author records the current violence that swept the “finest comunities of Jewish Poland,” including Vilna and especially Lublin. He recounts the slaughter in a poetic language abounding with scholarly references. Compelled to leave Venice to search for his family back in Poland, he wished to leave behind the present slim work - “Works of a Halachic nature must wait until my mind is at ease.”