Ma’amar Yayin ha-Meshumar [Treatise of the Guarded Wine”]

SHAPIRO, NATHAN

n.p.

Venice

1660

First Edition. Title within typographical border. Ex library. On title, owner's signature, “Eizik Berlin, 1820”

Vinograd, Venice 1345; See Ya'ari, Sheluchei Eretz Israel (1977), p. 106

Treatise on the prohibition of drinking Gentile wine and regarding the issue of shaving one’s beard. When the Jerusalemite R. Nathan Shapiro arrived in Venice in the year 1655 he found that his Italian coreligionists were lax in both these areas of observance. He attempted to remedy the situation by pennning this kabbalistic treatise. The lengthy introduction to the work includes earlier statements by a broad array of rabbis including the legendary R. Judah Löw (Maharal) of Prague. This work has been recently reprinted at the behest of R. Moshe Zuriel of B'nei Berak