(The Physician). Kether Torah [on the precepts]

VITAL, DAVID BEN SOLOMON

Eliezer ben Gershom Soncino

Constantinople

1536

FIRST EDITION. Title within historiated woodcut border surmounted by coronet. Illustration of hand (relating to calendar) on f. 14v, illustration of cow’s lung (relating to dietary laws) on f. 92v. An uncut copy. Signature of Samson Cohen Modon of Mantua on title.

Vinograd, Const. 154; Mehlman 705.

A Spanish exile, David Vital settled in Greece, first in Patras and following the Turko-Venetian war of 1532, in Arta, where he was welcomed as a pre-eminent halachic authority. Kether Torah is a rhymed summary of the 613 Commandments in accordance with Maimonides’s enumeration, together with the seven rabbinical commandments. Hence, the numerical value of the title, “Kether” (620). The work is a commentary to Maimonides’ Sefer HaMitzvoth - indeed, the author writes that he has “not strayed from the great Eshel (tamarisk tree), neither left nor right.” Despite its unusual poetic form, the Kether Torah remains an important halachic source frequently quoted in rabbinic literature.