Biur al HaTorah [Kabbalistic commentary to the Pentateuch]

BACHIAH BEN ASHER

Gershom Soncino

Rimini

1524-26

Title with prominent printers mark depicting the Tower of Rimini on title (Yaari no. 6). Initial letters of opening word within white-on-black decorative historiated engraved border. Inscriptions of former owner on title in Hebrew and Ladino. Lengthy faded incription on final leaf, scholarly marginal notes in a Sephardic hand especially on the kabbalistic portions, (notes are signed "Yaakov" in many places and "Yaakov HaKatan" on f. 90a, cites a comment he heard from R. Samuel Arnaki on f. 74b, signed "Hagoleh mimakom lemakom, Yonah ben Binyamin on f. 160b)

Vinograd, Rimini 5; Mehlman 640; not in Adams

Bachiah ben Asher ben Chalawa (13th-century), Dayan of Saragossa, was a Kabbalist of the School of R. Solomon ben Adret of Barcelona. His Commentary is one of the most influential encyclopedic works on the Torah utilizing a wide variety of sources. Noteworthy are his Kabbalistic references, Midrashic interpretations as well as citations from lost Midrashim. For an excellent work on the Kabbalistic sources of R. Bachiah, see E. Gottlieb, Mekorotav shel R. Bachiah...Be’kitvei R. Yoseph Gikatilla in: Bar Ilan University Annual Vol. I (1969) pp. 306-26; and R. Yitzchak Sagi Nahor Ve’talmidav- Mekorot R. Bachiah Be’kitvei Ha’mekubalim, Bar Ilan University Annual, Samuel Bialoblocki Memorial Volume, (1964) pp.215-50