Simchath Hanephesh [“The Joy of the Soul”]

KIRCHHAHN, ELCHANAN

Matthias Andrei

Frankfurt a/Main

1707

FIRST EDITION. Text in Yiddish only, printed in Wayber-taytsch type. The Elkan Nathan Adler copy. Manuscript primer used as rear paste-down endpaper

Vinograd, Frankfurt a/Main 215

Rare. Not in the Stadt Bibliothek of Frankfurt (note by E.N. Adler inside front cover). Code of conduct throughout the Jewish year. Written in an exuberant style emphasizing the joys of living and enlivened with stories and ethical teachings. R. Jonathan Eyebesheutz praised the work in his Ya’aroth Devash, particularly urging women to consult it daily. See Carmilly-Weinberger, p. 181 regarding the censorship of a later edition of the Simchath Hanephesh due to the liberality of its Yiddish translation. Additionally, certain Rabbinic leaders later felt that portions of the code of laws should not be translated and were thus omitted in later editions. The present first edition containing the complete text including a discussion of Jewish laws and customs together with ethical poetry