Bidspirit auction | Lechem Setarim — Strasbourg 1777

Lechem Setarim — Strasbourg 1777 — First Edition. - Sefer Lechem Setarim, Commentaries and notes on Tractate Akum [Avodah Zarah], by Rabbi Shlomo Algazi. Strasbourg 1777. First edition. The Gaon Rabbi Shlomo Algazi (5370–5483) was born in Bursa in Turkey, ascended to Jerusalem, where he served as a dayyan, and returned to Turkey in order to print his many works. He battled the Sabbatean movement that operated in Turkey in his time, until he was compelled to flee Turkey. He returned to Jerusalem and was among the sages of the beit midrash of Rabbi Yaakov Ḥagiz. He composed books corresponding to the initials of his name: Shema Shlomo, Lechem Setarim, Me’olefet Sapirim, Hamon Rabbah, Ahavat Olam, Ta’avah Le’einayim, Gufei Halakhot, Aphiryon Shlomo, Zahav Shivah, Yavin Shemu’ah. Strasbourg Press: Few Hebrew books appeared in Strasbourg. These were the final days of the monarchy in France, as the title page attests that the printing was done under the government of Louis XVI. Strasbourg had been closed to Jewish settlement for hundreds of years, and only in that period did the famous shtadlan Naftali Herz Medelsheim, known as “Serf Baer, ” obtain permission to reside in Strasbourg with several Jewish families. R. Naftali Herz was a supplier to the king’s army, and by virtue of his connections and wealth greatly aided his Jewish brethren, and also funded the spread of Torah to a great extent. His brother-in-law was the Gaon Rabbi David Sintzheim, author of Yad David, and in the future president of Napoleon’s Sanhedrin and the first chief rabbi of France. R. Naftali Herz maintained a yeshivah in Bischheim, in which his great brother-in-law taught Torah to students until the French Revolution. With the encouragement of the Yad David, R. Naftali Herz printed a Shittah Mekubbetzet on Tractate Ketubbot and more. The Noda BiYehudah wrote an approbation to Lechem Setarim, in which he extols R. Hertz with exalted titles for this, and writes that following him R. Itzek volunteered to print this book, apparently after R. Hertz ordered the printing type for the French printer.