Haggadah of Passover*Bound together with Isaac ben Reuben of Barcelona. Seder Azharoth [piyutim for Shavu’oth]

(HAGADAH).

Israel Bak

Jerusalem

1842

First edition of Haggadah published in Jerusalem. Extensive English marginalia.

Vinograd, Jerusalem 10, 11; Halevi 5, 6; Yudlov, Haggadah 849; not in Yaari

FIRST HAGGADAH PRINTED IN JERUSALEM. IN UNUSUALLY FINE CONDITION. On p.19b the English glossator explains that the various expressions of liberation refer to successive exiles in Jewish history: “From mourning to festivity” refers to the deliverance of Purim, while “from darkness to great light” refers to the miracle of Chanukah, etc. Azharoth are poetic arrangements of the six hundred thirteen commandments, to be recited on Shavu’oth (Pentecost), the festival that celebrates the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. Some famous authorities who contributed to the Azharoth literature are: Sa’adyah Gaon, R. Elijah the Elder, R. Solomon ibn Gabirol, R. Isaac b. Mordecai Kimhi (Maestre Petit de Nions). Various communities adopted azharoth of different medieval poets. The Azharoth of R. Isaac bar Reuben of Barcelona were adopted by the communities of Morocco. (See R. Hayyim David Azulai, Shem ha-Gedolim II, s.v. Azharoth.) Indeed the present edition was brought out by R. Moses Edre’i of Marrakesh. The work bears the haskamah (encomium) of Rabbi Hayyim Abraham Gaguine, the Rishon le-Zion or Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Eretz Israel