Auction 57 · Lot 7

Chaim Shabthai. (MaHaRCHa”SH). Torath Chaim [responsa]. Parts I, II and III (complete)

Estimate: $2,000–$2,500
Hammer price: $1,600

Historical auction record. Hammer prices exclude buyer’s premium and taxes.

author

(AMERICAN JUDAICA)

Place

Salonika

Publication

1713, 1715 and 1722

Description

FIRST EDITIONS. Three parts bound in three volumes.

references

Vinograd, Salonika 211-12 & 223

summary

The earliest recorded responsa from the New World. Torath Chaim, Vol. III, responsa no. 3, discusses the appropriate season to pray for rain. This inquiry was sent from “a faraway land,” the Jewish Community of Recife, Brazil, to R. Chaim Shabthai, Chief Rabbi of Salonika and one of the outstanding rabbinic scholars of his time. The circumstances of living in the tropical climate of Brazil created questions regarding the traditional time to recite the Prayer for Rain. - Thus the New World’s first contribution to the lengthy Jewish tradition of Responsa Literature. See M.A. Cohen, Sephardim in the Americas, American Jewish Archives. Vol. XLIV (1992) p. 218.

Part I: ff. 5,148. * Part II: ff. 4, 128. * Part III: ff. 8, 192. Browned and dampwrinkled, two minute holes on title and first leaf of index of Part I, slight marginal repair on title of Part II, small tear on f. 94 of Part III, Uniform later half calf, slight wear. Folio.

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