Sermoës que Pregaraõ os Doctors Ingenios do K.K. de Talmud Torah, desta Cidade de Amsterdam.

(SEPHARDICA).

David de Castro Tartaz

Amsterdam

1675

Complete with Romeyn de Hooghe’s exquisite engravings of architecture and layout, exterior and interior of the synagogue (8 illustrations on 4 leaves). Text in Portuguese interspersed with Hebrew.

Kayserling, p. 100; Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana, Treasures of Jewish Booklore (1994) pp. 44-45 (no. 19); J. Landwehr, Romeyn de Hooghe as Book Illustrator (1970) p. 103 (no. 43).

A seminal landmark in the Sephardic treasury. The Sermoës comprise a collection of the sermons delivered at the dedication service of the newly built Spanish-Portuguese synagogue of Amsterdam in 1675. Sermons were preached by Hahams Isaac Aboab, Selomoh de Oliveira, Isaac Saruco, Isaac Nieto, Elijah Lopes, Isaac Vellozino, and Dr. Isaac Orobio de Castro. The festivities are described thusly: “The opening ceremony was held on the eve of Shabbat Nachamu (the Sabbath following the Fast of the Ninth of Av). The celebrations enlivened by a choir and an orchestra, continued for eight days, as long as the reconsecration of the Temple in the days of the Maccabees.” See M.H. Ganz, Memorbook (1977) p. 101. The synagogue, still standing today, has remained the revered shrine of the Spanish-Portuguese Jewish Diaspora.