Mevakesh Hashem [sermons and homilies on the weekly Torah Portions]

CHAGIZ, SAMUEL BEN JACOB

Giovanni di Gara

Venice

1596

FIRST EDITION. Title within woodcut architectural border. Marginalia.

Vinograd, Venice 823; Habermann, di Gara 162; Adams H-14; Heller, p. 865

Samuel Hagiz (d.1633) was the scion of a distinguished family of Spanish exiles in Fez, Morocco, where he served as rosh yeshivah. Samuel's son, Jacob founded and headed the celebrated Beith Jacob Yeshiva in Jerusalem. His grandson, Moses left Eretz Israel for Europe, where apart from publishing several important works of Halacha, he became embroiled in many ugly controversies. While in Venice to publish his own books, Devar Shmuel and Mevakesh Hashem, Samuel served as proofreader in another press, perhaps to defray some of the expenses of the journey from Morocco to Italy. “His participation in the life of the presses inaugurated an involvement in Hebrew printing that was to last through the generation of Moses Hagiz.” E. Carlebach,The Pursuit of Heresy: Rabbi Moses Hagiz and the Sabbatian Controversies (1990), p. 20.