[“The Ways of the Righteous” ethics, according to the creed of the medieval Chasidei Aschkenaz]. Anonymous

ORCHOTH TZADIKIM

Mordecai b. Gershon Katz and Children

Prague

1580-81

FIRST EDITION. Printers device depicting the Temple on final leaf

Vinograd Prague 41

Cherished ethical work renowned for its clarity and comprehensive gathering of primary sources on each topic discussed. The book is divided into She’arim (portals or sections) elaborating on various specific moral qualities e.g. anger, envy, truth and falsehood, modesty, repentance, etc. The Orchoth Tzadikim has been issued through contemporary times in more than one hundred editions. An abridged edition in Yiddish was published in Isny, 1542, under the name “Sepher Ha-Midoth”(“Book of Ethical Qualities”); the present Prague edition is the first edition in full, and in Hebrew. For an insight into the origin of this work and its link with the Yiddish Sepher Hamidoth see I. Zinberg, A History of Jewish Literature (1975) Vol. VII, p. 148-53. According to Zinberg, since the anonymous author makes mention of the expulsion of the Jews from France in 1395 (chap. 27), it is possible he was a descendent of these exiles