Bidspirit auction | She’erit Yehudah. Salonika, 1600. First

She’erit Yehudah. Salonika, 1600. First & Rare Edition of one of the most important halachic works. - Sefer She’erit Yehudah includes numerous original halakhic rulings and was regarded as a foundational work among the decisors of later generations. The author of Kenesset Ha-Gedolah cites it more than one hundred times. It is also frequently quoted and discussed by the Shakh, Peri Ḥadash, Peri Megadim, Birkei Yosef, and many other leading later authorities. First Edition. Salonika, 1568. Printed by Yosef ben Yitzḥak Ya‘abetz. An especially rare sefer, one of the central halachic works authored by the great scholars of the Taitatzak family, among the most renowned rabbinic families in the history of the rabbis of the Spanish Expulsion. At the beginning of the work is printed a rabbinical ruling by the sages of Salonika concerning the Portuguese conversos, establishing that a woman under duress who was betrothed to a Jew, even in the presence of witnesses, is not considered validly betrothed and is therefore permitted to others. The sefer includes novellae and glosses on the Beit Yosef to Yoreh De‘ah, as well as halachic rulings and responsa by Rabbi Samuel Taitatzak (known as “Piskei R. Samuel”), and rulings and responsa by his brother, the gaon Rabbi Yosef Taitatzak (known as “Piskei Maharit”). The edition was prepared by Rabbi Yehudah son of Rabbi Samuel Taitatzak. In the printer’s introduction, written by a member of the Taitatzak family, the history of the manuscript from which the sefer was printed is described. On the final leaf appears the magnificent printer’s device of the printer Mattathias of the lineage of Bat-Sheva, featuring figures of angels, an eagle, and a lion. Yaari (Hebrew Printers’ Devices, p. 148) notes that this device in its large form appears only in this edition, whereas in other printings from the Bat-Sheva press it is smaller and lacks the printer’s name within the device. 84 Leaves. 18 cm.