Auction 34
Lot 008:
Haftarah for Tisha B’Av and a kina on Chana and her seven sons, with a commentary in Judeo-Arabic based on Chazal’s midrashim. By Rabbi Yosef Shabtai Farhi. First and only edition—Livorno 1853. Some of the bibliographic listings give a year of printing (1858) based on the gematriya of the cover (“Lev Yerushalayim”) but that is a mistake because the cover has the term “LePrat Gadol” which means that we have to delete 5 years from the calculation, which results in 1853. In addition, on the back of the cover there is a different gematriya: “Et LeChanina”, which creates the result 1853. The National Library places it in the Rare Books section, but its copy has a damaged cover, whereas the copy before us has a complete cover (though it is missing 2 pages at the end—18 instead of 20 in the original). No binding, stains and light tears, corrections handwritten, generally good condition.
The author was Rabbi Yosef Shabtai Farhi, known as the Yeshpo (1802-1882), he was a great learned kabbalist and a sage of Jerusalem, he was a folk scribe in Hebrew, Arabic, and Ladino. At the end of his life he lived in Livorno, where he published his books. He authored Oseh Peleh (1845), one of the most common works of folkloric stories available today.
Share this lot:
