[Derashot]. [דרשות]. [Sermons].
Details
Type of record: Archive
Title: [Derashot]. [דרשות]. [Sermons].
Classmark: MS ROTH/714
Creator(s): Noṿairah, Menaḥem ben Yitsḥaḳ (1717-1777)(Author)
Date(s): [1769–1777]
Language: Hebrew; Italian
Size and medium: 30 leaves : paper
Persistent link: https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/115737
Description
The booklet is most probably an autograph of Menaḥem ben Yitsḥaḳ Noṿairah (1717–1777). According to his own statement on the wrapper’s left side recto, it contains his sermon about the duty to pay communal taxes (cassella) which he performed in the synagogue of the Ashkenazic community of Verona on Sunday evening, 15 February 1765.
The beginning of the tax-sermon and its preliminaries are partly paraphrased in Italian, the language in which the sermons were most likely delivered.
Furthermore, the booklet contains several, partly kabbalistic, expositions about particular themes, such as the sin of prostitution or the source of the benedictions (‘berakhot’). These expositions are mostly in Hebrew with some Italian.
Contents:
1. folios 1–10r (left to right foliation): ״[דרוש] בענין הטלת המסים והפרעונות״.
2. folios 1r–20v (right to left foliation): מקור הברבות״ ופרושים אחרים" .
(according to the right to left foliation, folios 1v, 5v–15v, 21 are blank; ״זנות״ (folio 16)).
State of text:
Some leaves are damaged by pests with loss of text.
Organisation of the bi-lingual text:
Presumably due to the bilingual nature of his project, the scribe recorded the sermon about the payment of taxes and additional expositions by starting on the left side of the booklet. He follows this method up to the middle of the booklet (folios 30r–16r). After this, several empty pages follow (15v–5v). Then follows another longer text which the scribe wrote by starting at the right side of the booklet (1r–5r).
Form and layout of the booklet are nearly identical with that of three other booklets (MS Roth 712, 713, 715) in Roth’s collection. These booklets also contain sermons authored by Menaḥem Noṿairah and are most probably written in his own hand. Together, the four booklets are a set of expositions and sermons delivered by Menaḥem Noṿairah on several occasions between the years Form and layout of the booklet are nearly identical with that of three other booklets in Roth’s collection (MS Roth 712-13, 715). These booklets also contain sermons authored by Menaḥem Noṿairah and are most probably written in his own hand. Together, the four booklets are a set of expositions and sermons delivered by Menaḥem Noṿairah on several occasions between the years 1758 and 1776.
Bibliographical note:
Roth "Rabbi Menahem Navarra", JQR 15 (1925): 427–66.
Roth, “Catalogue”, in Alexander Marx: Jubilee Volume, vol. 1 (New York, 1950), no. 714.
National Library of Israel (NLI), Online Catalogue, system-no. 000186018. The NLI’s description is based on the microfilm of MS Roth 714 made on behalf of the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts of the NLI during the 1960s. The microfilm can now be downloaded in a digitised form from the NLI-webpage.
Davis, Handlist 164 (Leeds, 2005), no. 714.
Physical characteristics
Dimensions of binding: 199 x 148 mm.
Dimensions of written space: 190 x 140 mm (irregular).
Foliation/pagination: folios 30; (foliated from left to right 1-30; from right to left 1-10); two sets of modern pencil foliations; 1v, 5v–15v, 21r are blanks (according to left to right foliation).
Collation: 1³⁰.
Number of lines: irregular.
Script: Sephardic semi-cursive and square Hebrew script.; Italian cursive Latin script.
Ms. codex: width 149mm height 199mm
Binding
The gathering used to be stitch-bound into a thick, formerly white, paper wrapper; the binding came partly undone.
Roth’s description of MS Roth 714, cut out from a copy of his printed catalogue, is glued right above the lower edge of the left wrapper rectus. This make-shift label was probably made and attached by Roth himself.
Scribal information
The scribe was most likely Menaḥem ben Yitsḥaḳ Noṿairah himself.
Access and usage
Access
This material is not subject to restrictions under Data Protection or other relevant legislation that might limit access. However, other protections, such as donor conditions or conservation considerations, may still apply where advised.