Precationes Hebraicae…[Birkath HaMazon]. * Appended: Mah she-mone'a ha-yehudim she-lo ya'aminu… / Quid obstet iudaeis quo minus credant… [“What Prevents the Jews from Believing”]

(LITURGY)

Paulus Fagius

Isny

1542

Hebrew and Latin text. Last page with signature of John Morris of Oxford University, Regius Professor of Hebrew, 1626-48. Few marginal notes.

Vinograd, Isny 14; Haberman, Fagius 15

Grace After Meals for Messianic Jews. What starts initially as a traditional Aschkenazic Grace After Meals (ff.2-6), is followed by a Christological version of the same (ff.7-10). In the appended tract, the Author contends that what prevents Jews from accepting Christianity is the thorough social ostracism that remains the fate of the apostate Jew. The publisher, Protestant theologian Paulus Fagius (1504-49) took a keen interest in Jewish ritual, realizing fully that such were the original practices of Christianity. See E. Carlebach, Divided Souls: Converts from Judaism in Gemany (2001) p. 174). The present copy contains a total of 16 leaves, as opposed to 12 leaves as recorded by Haberman (copy sold by Kestenbaum & Company, Sale 44, Lot 181.) Mehlman (no. 1909) presents an unusually lengthy description (four columns!) of this scarce tract