Bidspirit auction | ASCHKENAZI, ELIEZER HAROPHÉ. Ma’asei Hashem

ASCHKENAZI, ELIEZER HAROPHÉ. Ma’asei Hashem [commentary to the Six Days of Creation, Ethics of the Fathers, the Passover Hagadah (with text) and various Biblical portions]. FIRST EDITION. Title within woodcut architectural arch. ff. (6), 197. Ex-library, touch stained, small blank portion of title removed, signed by censor on last page. Modern half-morocco. Folio. Vinograd, Venice 661; Stefansky, Sifrei Yesod 453. Venice, Giovanni di Gara, 1583. R. Eliezer Aschkenazi (1513-86) held influential positions in widely scattered Jewish communities from Egypt, Cyprus and Italy to the major 16th century centers of Poland, where he died. As a biblical exegete, Aschkenazi follows the rationalist trend in rabbinical scholarship. He suggests that irrational elements in Jewish tradition had occurred due to copyists’ errors, misunderstandings and misreadings, or had been inserted during times of political and social troubles, or even interposed by adversaries. The commentary on the Hagadah here annotates in an Aggadic vein alongside a mystical explication and served as a basis for many later commentators. It was very popular and has been republished numerous times to this day.