Imrei Shepher [“Words of Beauty” [Sermons for various occasions]

ASCHKENAZI, NAPHTALI BEN JOSEPH

Daniel Zanetti

Venice

1601

ONLY EDITION. Title page and opening words of each chapter within a typographical border. On p.3a, a learned marginalium. There are several signatures of previous owners, including: “Zevi Hirsch ben Shlomo, ritual slaughterer of Norwich [England]; “Il libro del Samuel Anticola, 1746;” Hebrew signature of “Yizhak Itzik Segal Friedbarg.”

Vinograd, Venice 919

The author, a preacher in Safed, died in Venice in 1602. See JE, Vol. II, p. 200. The marginalium explains a difficult passage in the Talmud (Pesachim 54a) which concerns “seven things created before the creation of the world.” Our glossarist explains why despite God’s accepatance of Man’s repentance, the preexistence of the Holy Temple was still necessary. Man would repent only his sins, but not his wayward thoughts - the latter were addressed by the sacrificial order. Interestingly, a former owner of the present copy of this book was the “shochet u-bodek” (ritual slaughterer and inspector) of Norwich, England. Harried by a series of blood libels, the historic community of Norwich numbered only 50 souls by the time of the Expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290. Following the readmission of Jews to England in modern times, the Jewish community of Norwich made a modest comeback. By 1754 there existed a synagogue. The number of Jews in Norwich (roughly 1% of the general population) has held constant between 100-200 for a century. See EJ, Vol. XII, cols. 1226-7