Orden de Selihoth de…Bispora de Ros-hodes, que llamamos Kipur Pequeno (Penitential Prayers for the Eve of Rosh Hodesh known as Yom Kippur Katan)

[SEPHARDICA]

Joshua Sarfatti

Amsterdam

1676 (?)

Title within typographical border. On title: “Rebecca Mocatta.” The owner was a member of the aristocratic Anglo-Jewish family of Mocatta. Spanish text.

Extrremely rare. Not listed in Kayserling.

There are numerous editions of Orden (Spanish prayerbooks) issued in Amsterdam for the various festivals of the Jewish year and targeted for Spanish exiles unfamilair with Hebrew. However the Orden for Yom Kippur Katan (Small Day of Atonement), the rite prescribed by the kabbalists to be recited on the eve of the New Moon, is extremely rare. Perhaps there is significance in the fact that the book was owned by a woman, Rebecca Mocatta. According to the rabbis, Rosh Hodesh (New Moon) is to be celebrated as a women’s holiday, a phenomenon popularly revived in recent years.