Rare: Sefer Tehillim with Zohar, Safed 1833. The First Sefer Tehillim Printed in Eretz Israel.

Rare: Sefer Tehillim with Zohar, Safed 1833. The First Sefer Tehillim Printed in Eretz Israel.

Safed edition of Sefer Tehillim, the very first Tehillim ever printed in Israel. With the Metzudos commentary, as well as commentaries culled from the Zohar. Besides its historical importance, it is also held in high esteem in Chassidic circles, since R. Gershon Margolis, Rabbi of Skalit and foremost disciple of the Be’er Mayim Chaim, oversaw the publication of this edition. In his introduction, he relates that he discovered an ancient manuscript authored by a certain R. Yisroel, which contained the words of the Zohar on Tehillim. He did not intend to publish it, but his Mechutan R. Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev requested it be brought to print and R. Gershon agreed. To complete the work, he added the text of Tehillim and Metzudos.  

The printer R. Yisroel Beck adds words of preface as well. In it, he declares that buying his works is a Segulah for protection, as he writes: “Whoever purchases these works printed in our Holy Land, and especially this small Sefer Tehillim with the comments of the Zohar, will be saved from any certain pain and suffering. Furthermore, all their prayers will be answered since they merited supporting Yishuv Eretz Yisroel”. 

Complete copies of this edition are very rare. See: Sefer Koros Haitim L’Yeshurun B’Eretz Yisroel (Vilna, 1840), an eyewitness testimony by a disciple of R. Yisroel of Shklov who emigrated to Safed during these years. He testified that during the Arab riots which occurred during the 1830s, R. Yisroel Beck’s printing press was entirely burned and destroyed, and all remaining copies of Seforim which he printed were destroyed as well. 

A complete copy. Light stains and abrasions on some leaves. Small open tear on pp. 44, affecting two letters of text. Small tears to bottom portion of title page, affecting text on verso, supplied in facsimile. Otherwise in good condition. Bound in a new, ornate hand-tooled leather binding with gilt accents.

Sefer Tehillim with Zohar, Safed 1833. 

[4], 152 pp.