Lazemi, Mimon, (Ed). Kinoth [elegies]

(LITURGY)

Morocco

18th-19th centuries

Sephardi cursive, many hands

Collection of “kinoth,” poems to be recited on mournful occasions, including an indexed collection of kinoth by R. Jacob ibn Zur (Ya’abetz) (1673-1752), the great Moroccan luminary. (Index on f.73v.-74r. arranged alphabetically according to first words of elegy, just as in Davidson’s Thesaurus.) Ibn Zur’s piyutim are among the most popular poetical creations of Moroccan Jewry. See EJ, Vol. VIII, col. 1213. On f.5r. there is a kinah composed on the occasion of the death of Mimon’s father, Shalem Lazemi in 1855. The poet’s name occurs in acrostic, “Mimon Lazemi.” Also on f.9v. there is an inscription which has been erased, leaving visible the words “ben Shalem Lazemi.” ff. 37-60 is entitled “Et Sephod” by R. Jacob ibn Zur (Ya’abetz) containing elegies for the Dayan of Fez and other luminaries, some of whom died in the 17th-century; e.g. f. 38r. contains a poem for a scholar who died without children in 1698. Starting on f.82r. there are kinoth by the editor’s uncle Abraham Halawa. f.88v. contains an elegy for ”Ha-Chacham Ha-Shlem..Yaakov Berdigo (However, on f.60v. at the conclusion of a kinah by Raphael Ovadiah ibn Zur on the death of his father, Jacob ibn Zur, there is an old colophon from the year 1775 with the signature “Yitzchak Shlomo.") It would seem that the manuscript went through several hands. Further research is required.