Lekah Tov, Moses Najara, Constantinople: 1575

Yosef ben Ratzon-inscription on title page; Aziz Sholet- inscription on title page.

Mosheh Najara, Lekah Tov, Jerusalem: Machon Shuvi Nafshi, 1999; Meir Benayahu, 'Rabi Yisrael Nagarah', Asufot 4 (1990), p. 204; Vinograd, Constantinople 250.

Rabbi Moses Najara was born in Salonika in 1510, to a family of Spanish exiles forcibly evicted from their homeland in 1492. At around the age of 30, he moved to Safed. There he took his place among the distinguished scholars and mystics of the town, including R. Joseph Caro, author of the Shulhan Arukh. Najara also studied the esoteric lore of Kabbalah with Isaac Luria. After leaving the Land of Israel, Najara settled in Damascus, where he served as rabbi, preacher and teacher until his death in 1581 and where his son, Israel Najara, the famous poet was born.

Najara began writing Lekah Tov  as an expansive commentary on the Bible. However, after commenting at length on the first three chapters of Genesis, he moved to a more concise style. The bulk of the book consists of short comments on almost every verse. Focused discussions explain the commandments mentioned in each pericope, as enumerated by Maimonides in his Sefer ha-Mitzvot (Book of Commandments).

An interesting bibliographical anomaly appears on the title page. The chronogram explicitly indicates 1571 as the date of publication; this dating was considered accurate by no less a bibliophilic authority than Hayyim Yosef David Azulai.  Moritz Steinschneider however, by correlating additional information from the title page, correctly dates the work to the first year of the reign of Sultan Murad in 1575.