(ReM’A). Mechir Yayin [homiletical and philosophical commentary to the Book of Esther].

ISSERLES, MOSHE

Vicenzo Conti

Cremona

1559

FIRST EDITION. Signatures on title including Shlomo Dubno and Yuspa Katz (1651). Marginalia.

Vinograd, Cremona 27.

The ReM’A wrote Mechir Yayin in 1566 in the town of Shidlov (Szydlowiec) where he had fled in order to escape the plague (“ipush ha’avir”) that was ravaging Cracow. He states that his living conditions were deplorable (providing numerous examples) and, “in order to chase away my state of depression…I decided to write this commentary, for the words of Torah makes the heart rejoice.” The work demonstrates the author’s mastery in the exposition of Tanach and the depth of his understanding of Kabbalah and Maimonidean philosophy. Solomon Dubno (1738-1813) was a rabbinic proto-Maskil who tutored Moses Mendelsohn in Berlin.