Seder Tephiloth u-Pizmonim ha-Nohagim le-Omram Poh Modena [“Prayers and Poems Customarily Recited Here, Modena.”]

(ITALY)

Modena

1808

Manuscript in Hebrew. Square letters with nikud (vowel points). Title within balustrade

This collection of Kabbalistic compositions covers the period of the year from Chanukah through Tish’ah be-Av, including the Four Special Portions (Shekalim, Zachor, Parah and ha-Chodesh), the readings of the Twelve Princes (Nesi’im) for the beginning of the month of Nisan, the intentions for the Passover Seder, and the elegies for the Ninth of Av. The Aramaic poem for the First Night of Passover, patterned after Rabbi Isaac Luria’s Sabbath hymns, is the composition of Nathan of Gaza, the “prophet” of pseudo-Messiah Shabbetai Zevi. The author has signed his name in acrostics, “Ani Benjamin Nathan ben Elisha Chaim, Chazak” (ff. 51v.-53r.). The poem was borrowed from the anonymous collection Chemdath Yamim (Izmir, 1731). See B. Naor, Post-Sabbatian Sabbatianism (1999), p. 140, 214, n. 2