(SORIA, MORDECHAI DE ABRAHAM DE).

Juan Pablo Fantechi

Livorno

1751

Oracion Panejirico Doctrinal Sobre la Mala Tentacion…que recit`o un Discipulo Suyo en dia, que entr`o en Barmisb`a [oration about the Evil Inclination…recited by a disciple of the Author on the day that he entered Bar Mitzvah, which was the first day of Sukoth]

Kayserling 104

A sophisticated (and lengthy!) Bar-Mitzvah speech, in which, among other topics, the symbolism of the Tabernacle festival's Four Species is presented (pp.126-44). In what appears an original interpretation, the author maintains that the ethrog or citron represents the First Cause, the lulav or palm frond the Angelic World; the hadas or myrtle the Spheres; and finally, the aravah or willow branch the Terrestrial or Sublunar realm (p. 140). That the book is in Spanish rather than Italian is not at all surprising, for the majority Sephardim of Livorno were still Portuguese and Spanish speaking until the beginning of the 19th-century. Kayserling notes with consternation that the Church officials found fault with it and it was placed on the Index of 1755