Hibbur ha-Teshuvah, Menahem Meiri, Scribe: Avner (?), 1471

Fols. 1r-186r: Sefer Meshiv Nefesh (part one of Hibbur ha-Teshuvah).

Fols. 186v-227r: Sefer Shever Gaon (part two of Hibbur ha-Teshuvah).

Fol. 227v: Colophon: "I, Avner [the next word is illegible] wrote this for myself and finished it on the second of Adar 231[=1471]." After the colophon various notes.

Fols. 230r-231v: Short comments on Maimonides, Moreh Nevuhim (The Guide of the Perplexed), part one, chapters 21-65, in a cursive Sefardi script. See J. Schifman, More ha-more le-R. Shem Tov ben Josef Falaquera (dissertation), part 2, p. 10 (this fragment is not from Falaquera’s commentary).

Born in Perpignan to a distinguished Provencal family, Menahem Meiri, the author of this work, stands out as the embodiment of the highest qualities which characterized Provencal Jewry: regard for tradition, custom and Torah learning, combined with an appreciation of philosophy, secular erudition, and the sciences. Meiri was the last Provencal scholar to embody this synthesis and his brilliant creativity was brought to expression in fluent, even poetic Hebrew. 

Hibbur ha-Teshuvah was written by Meiri in his youth and is his earliest known work. Its subject is ethics and repentance and it clearly reveals the influence of the Malmad ha-Talmidim of Jacob Anatoli, the first Provencal scholar to stimulate interest in the meaning of the precepts as distinct from their observance. It may be assumed that toward the end of his life Meiri revised the work, which in its present form, bears the character of a well-constructed sermon book.

Sotheby’s is grateful to Menahem Schmelzer z”l and Benjamin Richler for cataloguing this manuscript.

Provenance

Eliezer Ashkenazi (owner’s inscriptions, fols. 103v, 229v). Eliezer Ashkenazi was a scholar and book dealer. In the introduction to his edition of Sefer Zikkaron (Leghorn, 1845) he writes that he plans to publish Meiri’s work on the basis of a manuscript he owns. In all likelihood this is the manuscript to which he referred. — Solomon Halberstam (shelf no. 221, notes on front flyleaf and pencil marks on margin)

Physical Description

228 leaves on paper, 7 ¾ x 5 ½ inches; 197 x 140 mm, written in Sefardi semi-cursive script in brown ink, catchwords, original foliation in ink, modern foliation in pencil; apparently lacking leaves 228-229, marginal repairs throughout, marginal worming costing a few catchwords and text in fols. 211-212, 217-219 and 226-227, ink oxidation causing burnholes or cuts through lines affecting approximately 40 leaves, oxidation causing fol. 113 to split in half, a few shoulder notes and headlines shaved, some text browning, text shaken. Half vellum over marbled boards; worn, spine starting from casing, hinges weak.

Literature

Hirschfeld (ms. no. 258); used by Abraham Sofer for his edition of Hibbur ha-Teshuva, (1950)