Akeidath Yitzchak [“Binding of Isaac": Philosophical and allegorical homilies to the Pentateuch]

ARAMA, ISAAC

Daniel Bomberg

Venice

1547

Second edition. Title within woodcut architectural arch. Opening word of each part within an elaborate border. On title, a monogrammatic Sephardic signature: "Ha-tza'ir Shmuel [illegible]." On final leaf, family inscriptions in a cursive Aschkenazic hand dated 1722 and 1725. Scattered learned marginalia.

Vinograd, Venice 326; Habermann, Bomberg 195; not in Adams

Isaac Arama (c.1420-1494), rabbi of Calatayud, Spain, is known as “the preacher’s preacher.” In his introduction, Arama breaks his sermons down into two components, which he terms “derishah” (investigation) and “perishah” (exposition). In the first part, the preacher investigates a philosophical idea in light of his chosen texts, biblical and rabbinical. This phase completed, the preacher then assumes the role of an exegete, elucidating the text - and context - of the portion at hand. The title, “Binding of Isaac,” refers to the successful binding and connecting of the two types of homiletics, “derishah” and “perishah.” The book is divided into 105 “gates.” See I. Bettan, Studies in Jewish Preaching (1939), pp. 130, 143-144; EJ, Vol. III, cols. 256-259