Bidspirit auction | Siddur  Written and Edited by

Siddur  Written and Edited by Rabbi Sasson Mordechai Shanduk, Leading Sage and Kabbalist in Iraq. Owned by the Ben Ish Chai and Later by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef Baghdad, circa 1760. * A siddur for the entire year according to the old Baghdad nusach, arranged and written with additions containing instructions and unique customs in the holy handwriting of the Kabbalist Rabbi Sasson Mordechai Shanduk, the leading sage of Iraq. The text of the siddur is based on the old Baghdad nusach and contains documentation of dozens of antique textual variants and early customs that disappeared with the introduction of newer nuschaos and practices that came into use in Baghdad during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Throughout the siddur, Rabbi Sasson incorporated dozens of prayer text variants and kabbalistic intentions according to the path of Kabbalah. Between the sections, many instructions were added, some of them unique and not found elsewhere. The identity of Rabbi Sasson Mordechai is established with certainty through his signatures in the colophons at the end of the first and second sections, and especially through comparison with his known handwriting from other sources. Rabbi Sasson Mordechai was renowned in Baghdad as an outstanding scribe, possessing an elegant and accomplished handwriting. Over the years, the siddur came into the possession of the holy gaon and kabbalist, the “Reish Galusa of Bavel, ” Rabbeinu Yosef Chaim of Baghdad, author of Ben Ish Chai, and later passed into the ownership of the Rishon LeTzion Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. The present siddur joins three other known siddurim of the Arizal written and edited by Rabbi Sasson Shanduk, each distinguished by its own variations and additions. The unique distinction of the present siddur, however, lies in the fact that it is the only one that contains all the prayers of the year in complete form, and that it still adheres closely to the early Baghdad nusach, prior to the changes introduced under the influence of printed siddurim. From this perspective, it should be dated earlier than the other surviving siddurim preserved in manuscript form, and it was apparently written in his youth, around the year 1760s. The History of the Siddur and Its Provenance The earliest documented ownership inscription in the siddur is that of R' Abdallah Moshe Salem, dated 1863. At a later stage, according to the testimony of R' Salman Dabi, the siddur passed into the possession of Rabbi Yosef Chaim of Baghdad, author of Ben Ish Chai, and remained in his library until shortly before the mass emigration to Eretz Yisrael from Baghdad. On an unknown date, the siddur reached the hands of his nephew, Chacham Ezra son of R' Nissim. Chacham Ezra then entrusted the siddur to R' Salman Dabi, the gabbai of the Meir Taweig Synagogue, where he assembled, after the community’s departure to Eretz Yisrael, thousands of books collected from all the synagogues and private libraries of Baghdad. R' Salman Dabi immigrated to Eretz Yisrael in 1972. Shortly after his immigration, he visited Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, and following that visit, he presented Rabbi Ovadia Yosef with the present siddur as a gift, regarding it as a most precious treasure. These details are clarified from a letter sent by R' Salman Dabi to Rabbi Ovadia Yosef after the visit, in which he wrote: “A handwritten siddur. A complete siddur, Rabbi Sasson Mordechai… it was in the house of Chacham Yosef Chaim. It was given to me by the late Ezra Chacham Nissim, the son of the brother of Rabbeinu Yosef Chaim…” (He further notes that he gave David Fatal two megillos, an antique silver amulet approximately five hundred years old, and a copy of Sefer Masaos Binyamin.) See the photograph of the letter and its draft in the scans appended to the accompanying study. The siddur was preserved in the library of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef until recently and was sold with permission. (Documents can be obtained from the office upon request.) On the title leaf appears the signature of R' Salman Dabi: “The young Salman Eliyahu Binyamin Daniel, ” as well as a dedicatory inscription in his handwriting to the Meir Taweig Synagogue.  Rabbi Sasson Shanduk:  The divine kabbalist, Chacham Sasson son of Mordechai Shanduk (d. 1830), was one of the leading sages and kabbalists of Iraq. He was born around 1740 in Baghdad, to his father R’ Mordechai, the son of R’ Moshe Shanduk, who served as Nasi (leader) of the community. Rabbi Sasson became famous in his lifetime as a miracle worker, and in Baghdad, awe-inspiring accounts of his miraculous deeds circulated widely (see Ketz HaYamin, §147). The extent of his sanctity is illustrated by an account he relates in his own notes: Alone in the synagogue, proofreading a Torah scroll, he saw several righteous figures seated before him in the sanctuary. He identified them as the avos—Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov—and Ezra HaSofer Among his printed works are Kol Sasson (Livorno, 1859), Davar Be’Ito (Livorno,