Avodath ha-Kodesh [A collection of seven small treatises on Halachah, Minhag and Nuscha'oth of Prayer]

AZULAI, CHAIM JOSEPH DAVID (CHID”A).

Israel Bak

Jerusalem

1841

FIRST EDITION. Additional title within decorative woodcut architectural frame

Vinograd, Jerusalem 1-9; Halevy, Jerusalem 1; Benayahu, Rabbi H.Y.D. Azulai (1959), p. 197, no. 21

First Book Printed in Jerusalem In the Printer's Preface, Israel Bak tells of the misadventures that befell him since his arrival in the Holy Land from Berdichev. In Safed, site of his first press, he witnessed the calamitous earthquake that struck in 1837 and the murderous riots by the local Arabs the following year. Bak travelled to Alexandria in order to petition the authorities to restore looted Jewish property, but to no avail. While in Alexandria, he learned of the infamous Damascus Affair, in which the Jewish community were accused by their Christian neighbors of the blood libel. Bak takes credit for having been the intermediary between the beleaguered Jews of Damascus and their saviour in the person of Sir Moses Montefiore of London. Eventually, Bak reestablished his press in Jerusalem, the first in the Holy City