Baruch She’amar [laws concerning Sofer STa”M]

SAMSON BEN ELIEZER.

(Germany)

1858

Hebrew manuscript on paper. Title within multicolored pillars (blue, red, green and yellow).

I. Ta-Shema, “Towards a Characterization of 14th century German Rabbinic Literature”, Alei Sepher vol. 4 (1977) pp. 37-41.

Dating to the 14th century this text remains the most authoritative compendium on the laws of writing Tefillin, Mezuzoth and Torah scrolls. The author (b. c. 1330) was apprenticed as a young orphan to a prominent Torah scribe who passed on to him many oral and professional traditions pertaining to his vocation. Most importantly, he gave him a copy of an ancient Tikun with laws compiled by the scribe Abraham of Sinzheim, a disciple of the Maharam of Rothenburg. The author revised this work with his own additions in which all of the pertinent material was carefully collated. Thus, the Baruch She’amar is extremely important as it preserves the German halachic tradition in this area, based upon the authority of the Maharam of Rothenburg. It was known (in manuscript form) to all the major Halachic decisors (Poskim) and served as a major source for all subsequent writing on this subject. The first complete version of this work was published in Shklov, 1804. Opening pastedown with inscription by the scribe, Joshua Goldberger, a teacher in the household of the great Rabbi Simcha Bamberger. The well known rabbinical Bamberger family included R. Seligmann Baer (Isaac Dov HaLevi) Bamberger (1807-78), or “the Wuerzburger Rav”, as he was known. This text was apparently written for the use of his father, Rabbi Simcha HaLevi Bamberger (Otzar Harabanim 19695).