Bidspirit auction | Important Unpublished Manuscript Peirush Mahari”ban

Important Unpublished Manuscript Peirush Mahari”ban on Orach Chaim Handwritten by the Author Rabbi Yosef Bardugo, Av Beis Din of Meknes, Morocco Mid-19th Century * Handwritten and autographed manuscript of nearly 120 pages by one of the great sages of North Africa, the Gaon Rabbi Yosef Bardugo, author of Kesones Yosef and Av Beis Din of Meknes, a city renowned for its sages and scribes. Contains commentary and chiddushim in halacha on the Shulchan Aruch on the section Orach Chaim, in its entirety. At the top of the first leaf, the author writes: “And I have called its name Mahari”ban, acronym for: מאתי הצעיר יוסף בירדוגו נר”ו – from me, the young Yosef Bardugo, may his light shine. May Hashem grant me the merit to author many sefarim without limit” (this line is struck through by the author himself). On the next line he writes: “Commentary on the Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim, with the help of Heaven. May Hashem grant me the merit to author many sefarim without limit, so may it be His will, amen.” Another work of his is preserved in the library of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, in which the opening leaf, in the author’s handwriting, lists his works and mentions the present composition: “Mahari”ban on Kitzur Dinim, which is a concise commentary of practical halacha…” The overwhelming majority of this manuscript has never been printed! A few pages were published in Kovetz HaMo’adim (Jerusalem, 2005). Rabbi Yosef Bardugo, Av Beis Din of Meknes (1802–1854) , was among the most prominent Torah authorities in Morocco, a distinguished scion of the illustrious Bardugo rabbinic family. From his youth he devoted himself with extraordinary diligence to Torah study, producing remarkable chiddushim; already at age seventeen he authored a sefer on the Shas. He wrote many sefarim, of which only Shu”t Kesones Pasim (later reprinted) and Divrei Yosef on the Shulchan Aruch were published. In the present manuscript, he cites his own chiddushim on the Shas multiple times. His halachic works are extremely valuable to dayanim and morei halacha, as they contain a vast range of sources, as noted by the Rabbanim who granted approbations to his printed works. For more on his biography, see the fascinating introduction by Professor Moshe Amar to the sefer Kesones Yosef, new edition, Lod, 1991. “It is accepted among us… that the author secluded himself for many years, never leaving the doorway of his home — and his entire occupation was to copy and arrange his numerous compositions” (the famed Gaon Rabbi Shalom Messas on the author, at the beginning of Divrei Yosef). Meknes, circa mid-19th century. Handwritten manuscript of Rabbi Yosef Bardugo. Page count: [60] leaves, [117] written pages. Size: 19.8 cm. Condition: Fair-to-poor, with textual loss to the first 6 and last 31 leaves (in some cases only a few letters missing). Noticeable holes. Stains, some leaves with ink fading. Fine new leather binding. On the first page appears an inscription signed by Rabbi Shlomo Bardugo. — — — The author frequently used a fine and unique expression, which he used in his sefarim as well as in the present manuscript: ”והנלקוצ”ד כתבתי” — meaning: “And that which appears to my limited understanding, I have written.”