Seder shel Yom ha-Kippurim ke-Minhag K[ahal] K[adosh] Cavaillon [Order of Prayers for the Day of Atonement According to the Rite of Cavaillon]

(FRENCH JUDAICA)

Cavaillon

1708

Brown ink on coarse paper. Title within artistic portal design. Entire text in Rashi letters with nikud. Instructions in Hebrew. On front flyleaf, Hebrew inscription by former owner: “Today, the third of Tishri 5502 [1741] I came here to the community of Lisle [-sur-Sorgue], Manoach Debedarides.” And again on title, in French: “Manoe Debedarides”

After the expulsion of the Jews from France in the fourteenth century, they remained in the semi-independent territories of the south, under the rule of the Counts of Provence. Cavaillon was one of four petite Jewish communities tolerated in the French possessions of the Holy See. (The other three communities were: Avignon, Carpentras, and Lisle-sur-Sorgue). "Cut off for centuries from their fellow Jews in other countries, the communities … evolved in the course of time their own particular species of Jewish culture, ranging from their Judeo-Provencal patois to their characteristic synagogal architecture, from their pronunciation of Hebrew to their folklore, from their calligraphy to their cuisine. Above all, as was natural, they evolved their own rite of prayers—the former Provencal rite, embellished with local peculiarities, prayers to suit local conditions, and hymns by local poets. Centuries after the invention of printing, they continued to copy their liturgical works by hand" (Cecil Roth, Studies in Books and Booklore [1972], pp. 81-2). The scribe has signed on the title "Immanuel bar Gad de Miliav [Milhaud]." (Regarding the Hebrew spelling of the surname, see the appeal to “Hananel de Miliav of Avignon” in this sale, Lot 136). According to Roth, Immanuel ben Gad de Milhaud was the most prolific of the scribes of the Comtat Venaissin. His period of activity stretched from 1663 to 1716. Roth evidently was unaware of a Cavaillon prayer book in his hand such as the present one. The numerous manuscripts known to Roth were according to the rites of the other three communities of the Comtat: Avignon, Carpentras, and Lisle. Roth, ibid., p. 82