?). Nishmath Kol Chai [homilies to the weekly Torah portion and Festivals].

(PINTO, CHAIM YOSEPH

Safed

Early 19th century

Two volumes. Manuscript in Hebrew, written in a dense semi-cursive Sephardic hand on paper.

UNPUBLISHED AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT . It is clear that the author’s name was Chaim as alluded in the title (the numerical value of Kol Chai is the same as Chaim). In multiple passages the author cites what he heard in the name of the Gaon of Vilna and from his teacher “R. Mendel of Vilna,” i.e., R. Menachem Mendel of Shklov. Likewise he quotes the Maggid, student of the Ba’al Shem Tov, many other Chassidic sources as well as a record of discussions conducted with R. David Shlomo Eyebeschutz (author of Levushei Serad) and also from the works of the Chid’a. The author also records his grandfather, R. Yeshayahu Pinto by way of his work Keseph Mezukak. We can presume that the author was R. Chaim Pinto who lived in Safed and enjoyed a close relationship both with the chassidic community and with the students of the Gaon of Vilna who established a community in Safed at the beginning of the 19th century. A most learned composition bringing together many approaches from all aspects of Jewish thought .