Bidspirit auction | Tzeror HaMor on the Torah

Tzeror HaMor on the Torah – The Work Buried During the Expulsion and Rewritten from Memory! Venice, [1566–1567] - Tzeror HaMor, a comprehensive commentary on the Five Books of the Torah combining peshat, derash, and Kabbalah, by the Gaon Rabbi Avraham Saba, one of the great Spanish sages of the generation of the Expulsion. The title page, as well as decorative elements appearing throughout the volume, features the printer’s device of Giorgio di Cavalli – an armored war elephant carrying a turret with soldiers on its back. Tzeror HaMor is one of Rabbi Avraham Saba’s most important works. Combining straightforward interpretation, Midrash, and Kabbalah, it achieved remarkable popularity already during the 16th century. Its stature and widespread demand are demonstrated by the fact that the work was printed no fewer than four times during the 16th century alone. The Work That Was Buried – and Rewritten from Memory Behind Tzeror HaMor lies one of the most fascinating stories in the history of the Hebrew book. Rabbi Avraham Saba composed his work during his stay in Portugal following the Expulsion from Spain. In the wake of the decrees imposed upon the Jews, possession of Hebrew books was prohibited. Rabbi Avraham succeeded, at great personal risk, in smuggling his writings to Lisbon. However, when the decrees were intensified and an edict was issued threatening those found in possession of Hebrew books with death, he was forced to bury his manuscripts and part with the fruits of his labor. Following the ordeals of the Expulsion, Rabbi Avraham reached Morocco. There, far from his original manuscript, he reconstructed and rewrote his work from his extraordinary memory, even reproducing from memory quotations and sources from other books. The author himself refers to this remarkable episode in his commentary Eshkol HaKofer on the Book of Ruth. The author’s personal story is not merely the background to the composition of the work. In several places throughout his writings, he records, in moving language and as a firsthand witness, the traumatic events experienced by the Jews of Spain and Portugal during the Expulsion and subsequent persecutions. His writings therefore possess, alongside their Torah and Kabbalistic importance, considerable historical significance. An early 16th-century Venetian edition of one of the fundamental works of Torah commentary – a work born amid the upheavals of the Spanish Expulsion, lost by its author, and recreated through the extraordinary power of his memory. 165 leaves. 29 cm. Condition: Very good. Minor stains and signs of use. Tiny hole in the final leaf. Fine original vellum binding.