Sefer ha-Mefoar Nikra Sefer ha-Musar, Judah Khalaz, Constantinople: Eliezer ben Gershom Soncino, 1536-1537

4 + 136 leaves (7 3/4 x 5 3/4 in.; 195 x 145 mm). Complete; modern foliation in pencil; leaves laid to size or strengthened at gutter occasionally affecting a few words; ff. 1-20, 37-9, 140, cropped; owners' notes f.1r; occasional Hebrew marginalia. Corners rounded; browning; soiling; staining. Recased in contemporary limp vellum.

Avraham Gross, 'R. Yehuda Khalaz in Tlemcen: Judeo-Iberian Culture in North Africa', Exile and Diaspora: Studies in the History of the Jewish People Presented to Professor Haim Beinart, Jerusalem:1988, pp. 356-373 (Hebrew); A. M. Habermann, Ha-Madpisim Bene Soncino, Vienna:1933, p. 72.; Vinograd, Constantinople 159.

Judah Khalaz was born in Castille around 1440, and moved from there to Granada in 1477. After spending five years in Granada and four more in Malaga, he left Spain in advance of the expulsion of 1492 and relocated to North Africa, eventually settling in Tlemcen, Algeria, where he worked as a Hebrew teacher.

Sefer ha-Mefoar, sometimes referred to as Sefer ha-Musar, is an ethical work based extensively on Israel al-Nakawa's Menorat ha-Maor. In this work, Judah Khalaz also interprets the kabbalistic explanations of the commandments and prayers given by his relative Moses ben Eleazar Khalaz. Judah also wrote a methodological introduction to the Talmud as well as a super-commentary entitled Meshiah Ilmim, on Rashi's Pentateuch commentary, which includes a short autobiographical description in the introduction.  The manuscript of Sefer ha-Mefoar was brought by a descendant of the author, another Moses Khalaz, to Constantinople and given to Eliezer ben Gershom Soncino, a scion of the famous printing family for publication.