Bidspirit auction | Manuscript – Collection of Tefillos

Manuscript – Collection of Tefillos for the Whole Year, in the Custom of the Jews of Casale, Italy – 1787 * An Italian manuscript, signed and dated, comprising approximately [130] written pages, containing various tefillos for the festivals of the year. The colophon on leaf 59a reads: “Written by the young and humble Shalom Avraham Levi, and the work was completed on the fifteenth day of the month of Av in the year תקמ”[ז?] (1787), according to the count of Bnei Yisrael.” In the National Library of Israel, there are scans of two other manuscripts copied by this same sofer in his youth, in the city of Casale, in the year 1785. (It is worth noting that in one of them, the passages of Seder Hoshanos and Birkas Kohanim appear as scribal practice exercises, while in the present manuscript, they appear in complete form.) At the end of the manuscript, there are orders of prayer for times of drought, instituted by the rabbanim of Casale, which, to the best of Zaidy’s knowledge, have survived only in a small number of manuscripts and have never been printed. On leaf 63a there is a prayer of supplication for a time of drought composed by Rabbi Shabsai Elchanan, Av Beis Din of Casale, in the year 1744. On leaf 61a there is another prayer of supplication for a time of drought composed by Rabbi Avraham Chai Sagri of Casale. The contents of the manuscript include: · Tikkun chatzos (leaves 1–8); · Kinos for erev Rosh Chodesh Av and for Tisha B’Av (8–13); · Supplications for reciting at kivrei tzaddikim and in the cemetery (13–21); · Supplications for the festivals recited during the taking out of the sefer Torah (21–25); · Seder Birkas Kohanim for Yom Kippur (25–30); · The tefillah “Hanosein teshuah lamelachim” and “Mi Sheberach” for erev Yom Kippur (30–31); · Seder Avinu Malkeinu for Ne’ilah (31–32); · Tefillos before binding a lulav (32–33); · Seder Hoshanos (34–58); · Tefillah before entering the sukkah (58–59); · “Mizmor leDavid havu laHashem bnei elim, ” according to the minhag of the kehillah of Casale, for a time of drought (59); · The supplication “Mi El kamocha av lematar, ” composed by Rabbi Avraham Sagri of Casale for a time of drought (61–62); · The supplication “Eleicha Hashem nikra ve’el Hashem nischanan, ” composed by Rabbi Shabsai Elchanan, Av Beis Din of Casale, for a time of drought (63–[64]); · “Lamnatze’ach al Yedusun leAsaf, ” according to the minhag of the kehillah of Casale, for a time of drought ([65]). Casale, 1787. Page Count: [65] leaves. Size: 20.8 cm. Condition: Signs of use and mold stains at the lower margins of some leaves. Original leather binding with signs of wear; remnants of gilt embossing on the spine. Written on the front flyleaf are the words: “Shel Shabsai Zalman.” This may refer to the officer Rabbi Shabsai Zalman Vita, mentioned by the Chida in his work Ma’agal Tov, who passed through the community of Casale in 1778 during his journey as a shadar (Mandelbaum edition, p. 469).