Even HaEzer, Sefer HaRa’avan, “…never before printed…for various reasons and decrees,
it was kept buried and ganuz and forgotten … for 500 years…and we asked and could not find anyone who had seen or heard things from this book…called Even haEzer, written by Rabbi Eliezer bar Natan, called the Ra’avan by the poskim…”. A foundational work with piskei din and ta’amei halachot and minhagim based on the gemara, by Rabbi Eliezer bar Natan, one of the Rishonim (one of the first Tosafists in Mainz; many of the Rishonim were his descendants, including the Rosh. He wrote kinot on the Gezirot Tatno—the Rhineland Massacres of 1096—which took place in his youth).
First edition printed by Moshe ben Betzalel Katz Mechukak. 154 leaves. Stefanski Sifrei Yesod 225.
We found only a few copies at various libraries, of course residing in the Rare collections. Title page has an engraving of angels, lions, and hands spread in the Kohanic blessing.
Joint approbation from gedolim of the period, signed in Poznan, 13th Av 1609. Rabbi Mordechai Yafeh (the Levushim), Rabbi Yosef bar Avraham Shapira,
Rabbi Shmuel Eliezer bar Yuda HaLevi (Idlesh)—the Maharsha, Rabbi David bar Yitzhak, Rabbi Avraham Levi bar Yuda Segal, Rabbi Elyiahu bar Mordechai, Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim bar Aharon Ish Lunshit (the Kli Yakar), Rabbi Yitzhak bar Shimshon Katz (son-in-law of the Maharal of Prague), Rabbi Moshe bar David HaLevi Horwitz, Rabbi Mordechai bar Eliya Lipshitz.
Repaired title page, lone tears in the margins, stains, holes in the fourth leaf, overall good condition for a book this rare and old.
