Tzeidah la-Derech [“Provision for the Way”: halachic compendium]

IBN ZERACH, MENACHEM.

Vicenzo Conti

Sabbioneta

(1567)

Second edition. Printer’s device on title (Yaari 26). Two folding Calendars at end. Censor’s signature on f.261: “Dominico Irosolimitano” (see Wm. Popper, The Censorship of Hebrew Books, pl. III, no.1). On f.18v. marginalium: “The author died in Toledo in the year 1385.” On f.78v. marginalium explaining the reason for the commandment to redeem a donkey with a sheep, based on commentary of R. Bachaye

Vinograd, Sabbionetta 55; Adams M-1244

Rabbi-physician Menachem ibn Zerach was born in Estella in the northern province of Navarre, Spain to a family that fled France at the time of the expulsion of the Jews in 1306. With the death of Charles IV, the French king who ruled over Navarre in 1328, anti-Jewish riots erupted. The author’s parents and his four younger brothers perished, the author himself escaped, settling eventually in Toledo, where he studied under Rabbi Judah, son of Rabbi Asher (RO”SH). Tzeidah la-Derech was composed for the personal use of ibn Zerach’s benefactor, Don Samuel Abrabanel of Seville. It contains a particularly important introduction with much invaluable material on the history of Halacha or Jewish jurisprudence