Bidspirit auction | ARAMA, YITZCHAK. Akeidath Yitzchak [philosophical

ARAMA, YITZCHAK. Akeidath Yitzchak [philosophical and allegorical sermons to the Chumash and Five Megilloth]. FIRST EDITION. Five parts bound here in two volumes. Issued without a title page. An attractive, clean copy. ff. 550 (of 557), opening seven leaves supplied in facsimile, trace light stains, censored, last page worn and repaired. Modern calf, slip-case. Folio. Vinograd, Salonika 29; Mehlman 1220 (incomplete). Salonika, Don Judah Gedaliah, Joseph de Crasto, & Eliezer de Arles for Solomon ibn Yakar, 1522. Rare first edition of a fundamental work of Jewish homiletics.  The Spanish author, affectionately known as the “Ba’al Akeida” (1420-94) has been consistently quoted and utilized, especially by Polish and Galician preachers, until the present day. Numerous works interpreting Arama’s philosophy have been issued through the centuries. R. Yitzchak Arama’s great popularity stems from his stylistic combination of the Aschkenazic didactic and moralizing style with the philosophic tendency popular among Spanish and Provencal Jews. The need for this new approach, as explained in the introduction: “is especially urgent in this country (i.e. Aragon) where the Christian preachers, many of whom are well learned, expound the doctrines of their faith as well as the words of the Bible in a philosophic and scholarly manner. The Jews who often listen to their preachings, desire that their rabbis should do likewise.” The philosophical and allegorical sermons included in the Akeidath Yitzchak deal with a broad range of topics including: The definition of the soul; the symbolic meaning of paradise; the conception of prophecy; free-will, etc.