SIDDUR RASHI, MANUSCRIPT ON PAPER [14th century]

79 leaves, 10 3/8 x 6 ½ inches; 264 x 165 mm, written on heavy paper in Ashkenazic semi-cursive script, modern foliation in pencil; dampstained throughout affecting text in several places, reinforced along inner margins, several repairs affecting text, library stamp in red on first and last leaves. Library buckram binding; back joint split.

Solomon Halberstam (shelf no. 120)

Hirschfeld (ms. no. 155); edition of S. Buber and J. Freimann (Berlin, 1910-1911), for which this manuscript was not used

Siddur Rashi contains laws and customs by Solomon ben Isaac (Rashi). The beginning of the work is missing and at the end there is a short colophon with a chronogram “ba –be-mazal lefrat”, suggesting the date 5082=1322.  The script and the paper, however, seem to indicate a later date.

The present manuscript includes a great deal of material that is not found in other copies of this work, including passages cited in other sources and attributed to Rashi but not found in other manuscripts. This manuscript was seldom cited in research on early halakhah and should be considered a valuable source for further research.