• Ms. 453




    Categories

    Liturgy
    Manuscript

    Seder Hazkarot Neshamot


    Manuscript ID:
    Ms. 453

    Place:
    Germany?

    Date:
    1730 or 1731

    Description:
    ink and pigment on parchment; 24 leaves (32 x 25.5 cm); Ashkenazi square and Rabbinic Hebrew script

    Copyist:
    Shabetai Shefṭel ben Zalman Auerbach

    Former Owner:
    Salli Kirschstein

    Subject:
    Liturgy


    This liturgical collection is dedicated to Rabbi Zalman, dayan of the Jews expelled from Vienna in 1670. The text commences with “Barukh she-amar” and continues with a variety of prayers including the blessings before the Haftarah, prayers for rain and for the release from vows. A kabbalistic Pidyon ha-ben (22v) includes a diagram of interlocking circles. Historical references include a prayer for the burning of the Prague Jewish quarter (in 1689), prayers (6r) for the Austrian emperor Charles VI, (13r) for the Prague yeshivah principal R. Elijah Shapira (non-resident rabbi of Tykocin, 1703-) b. Wolf b. Aaron Simeon Shapira (rabbi of Prague, 1640-79). The work ends with the Aleinu prayer. Some prayers for the authorities added later in cursive characters (24v) mention Duke Henry, the empress Maria Theresa (d. 1780) and her son, the emperor Joseph II (d. 1790).

     

    The text is decorated throughout and is illuminated with a typical 18th-century title page showing an ornamental portal motif with Corinthian columns, where Moses and Aaron flank the inscription. Above it, large putti are Holding a “tondo” showing David with the harp, an arrangement frequent also in the Oppenheimer manuscripts. The work was copied by Shabetai Sheftel be-R. Zalman Auerbach, grandson of Ber Eilenburg, rabbi of Austerlitz (in 1620). The work was a donation by Isaac b. Judah Kohen, dated 499 (1738 or 1739).

     

    Digitization of this manuscript was made possible through the generosity the Hornik Family Foundation.


    Manuscript Link:
    https://huc.on.worldcat.org/oclc/1370930562


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