Zedah la-Derekh [“Provision for the Way”]

Eilenburg, Issachar Baer.

Joseph and Judah Bak

Prague

1623

First edition. THE R. NACHUM KATZ COPY - He was the brother of R. Shabbetai ben Meir Ha-Kohen (1621-1662) (famed author of Sifthei Kohen [Sha”ch], arguably the most important commentary on Shulchan Arukh, Tur Yoreh Deah). His father-in-law was the then rabbi of Fürth, Germany, Rabbi [Aaron] Samuel Koidonover (Kaidanover) (c. 1614-1676) (famous author of Birchath ha-Zevach, a commentary to the difficult Seder Kodashim [Order of Sacrifices] of the Talmud). On title: “I bought this book from R. Nachum Katz, son-in-law of our Ab Beith Din [chief justice] R. S[amuel]…Meir son of he-haver R. Asher Halevi of the community of Fürth, of the family of Schalkwerd.” On verso: “Meir son of he-chaver R. Asher Halevi. I bought this Zedah la-Derech from R. Nachum Katz, son-in-law of the great gaon, our Chief Justice R. Samuel, 9 Adar 5422 [1662].” Also on title and final pages allusions to a later owner, a philanthropist named “Abraham Shneor.”

Vinograd, Prague 309

An important super-commentary to Rashi, the most famous Jewish Bible exegete. The author, R. Issachar Baer Eilenburg (c.1570-1623) studied under R. Judah Löw in the latter’s yeshivah in Prague. He later studied in Posen in the yeshivah of Rabbi Mordecai Jaffe, author of the Levush. Eilenburg’s most famous work is Be’er Sheva (Venice, 1614), to this day a favorite commentary on several tractates of the Talmud. At the time of his premature death, Eilenburg served as rabbi of Austerlitz, Moravia. JE, Vol. 5, pp. 77-78. R. Nachum Katz stands in the shadows of his illustrious brother R. Shabtai Cohen and father-in-law R. Aaron Samuel Koidonover. The latter two served together as judges in the Beith Din of R. Moses Lima in Vilna. At the time of the Swedish invasion of Poland and the hardships that followed in its aftermath, Koidonover was forced to flee to Kurow near Lublin, where two of his daughters were slaughtered. Eventually he reached safety in Nikolsburg, Moravia, and later served as rabbi and Chief Justice of Fürth. R. Nachum Katz wrote the preface to his father-in-law’s Birchath ha-Zevach (Amsterdam, 1669). See Isaak Markon, ”Bemerkungen…über die Wilnaer Flüchtlinge im XVII. Jahrhundert,” in Studies in Jewish Bibliography in Memory of A.S. Freidus (New York, 1929); JE Vol. VII, p. 414; EJ Vol. 10, cols. 1153-1154; Vol. 14, cols. 1217-1219.