Seder LeSimchath Torah - LeNassi Yeheskel Rahabi [order of prayers and ritual for -Simchath Torah]

(INDIA).

Cochin

1886

Hebrew Manuscript on paper, written in a precise, elegant, square Indian script in light blue ink. Original gilt-tooled morocco, with owner's name tooled on cover: Shalom Yehezkel Rahabi. Gilt dentelles, a.e.g. Title and first leaf with floral borders

Exotic Miniature Prayer Book from the Far East. With instructions relating to customs unique to the small community of Cochin. Simchath Torah, the Festival of Rejoicing in the Torah, was a grand affair in old Cochin. On the night following the holiday, it was the custom that women go out to kiss the Torah Scrolls, at which time the Hazan ascends the Bimah to bless them, reciting four times ‘Mi Shebeirach Imotheinu’ corresponding to the four matriarchs” (f. 71b) followed by a prayer for the welfare of the community's women and their families. The recorded history of the Jews of the Malabar Coast of South-West India reaches as far back as the year 1000 C.E. when the Jewish leader Joseph Rabban received a set of engraved copper plates from the Hindu ruler of Cranganore, listing various ceremonial and economic privileges. Due to a flood in the year 1341, the Jews were forced to evacuate their original home in Shingly, settling eventually in Cochin and environs. However, even into modern times they continued to refer to their custom as “Minhag Shingly.” This manuscript was composed for Shalom Ezekiel Rahabi, whose ancestor, David Ezekiel Rahabi was an important merchant with the Dutch East Indies Company and under whose auspices the historic Pardesi Synagogue errected a four-story clock-tower in 1760 - a totemic sight throughout Cochin. See Israel Museum Catalogue, O. Slapak, The Jews of India (1995)