Tur Orah Hayyim, Jacob ben Asher, [Spain, ca.1457]

179 leaves (10 1/2 x 8 in.; 268 x 202 mm); f. 179 blank. Written in brown ink on paper in a neat fifteenth century Sephardic semi-cursive Hebrew script, initial words enlarged; 32 lines; early Hebrew letter foliation in ink, modern numerical foliation in pencil.  Notes in a later Maghrebi hand, ff. 109v-110r; notes in a late Yemenite hand on ff. 178r; infrequent marginalia; intra-textual diagrams ff. 93v-94v, 165r. First and last few ff. mounted, most remargined, loss of 3-4 lines of text on ff 1-3,; worming repaired throughout; some ink bite affecting text ff. 51-3, 66, 106-8, 139-44, 157-61. Modern tan calf, blind tooled border, brown leather label with gilt-stamped titles, affixed to spine.

Shelomoh ibn Yosef- his inscription on f. 177r; Shaindle and Yehuda Elberg- their stamp on first front free endpaper.

The Orah Hayyim is the first of the four tracts or "rows" of Jacob ben Asher's full code of law, the Arba'ah Turim (Four Rows). The arrangement of the book, its simple style, and its breadth of content, made it a basic work in Hebrew law, and opened a new era in the realm of halakhic codification.

Jacob ben Asher (1270?-1340), was the son and pupil of Asher ben Jehiel (Rosh,) and accompanied his father in leaving Germany and resettling in Toledo in 1303.  Though Jacob usually decided in accordance with the opinion of Alfasi, in cases where Maimonides or other sages disputed Alfasi's opinion, Jacob relied on the opinions of the Rosh as expressed in his responsa or in volumes of his collected decisions. Jacob ben Asher's work first states the essence of individual halakhic rules briefly and without reference to talmudic sources. This is followed by a succinct citation of the different opinions expressed by post-talmudic scholars, thus combining the most desirable aspects of a "book of pesakim" with those of a "book of halakhot." In this manner Jacob ben Asher struck a balance by finding a format that was convenient and concise and which still preserved the link with the halakhic sources.

The excellence of the work soon led to its dissemination throughout the Diaspora and for over 200 years, the Arba'ah Turim remained the most widely accepted halakhic work in western Jewry. So important had the Tur become in the centuries following its composition that with the advent of printing in the mid 15th-century, the Arba'ahTurim immediately became the most frequently printed Hebrew book in the incunable period.

Orah Hayyim (Path of Life), the first section of the Arba'ah Turim, deals with daily behavior, worship, and ritual observance in the home and synagogue. The text of the present manuscript is in agreement with the printed editions, though it contains numerous variant readings. With the exception of the few damaged words noted in the physical description, the text remains intact. An early Sephardic hand recorded the numbers of the first 355 chapters in the margins until folio 94r where the enumeration ceases. Though the printed edition contains 697 chapters, the division of paragraphs in the present manuscript sometimes differs from the printed edition, as well as from other manuscripts.  In addition to the text of Orah Hayyim the present lot contains two fascinating manuscript additions penned by later hands; ff. 109v-110r contain notes in a Maghrebi hand concerning solar eclipses visible in Tlemcen, Algeria between 1530-1558 CE and mentions the astronomer Johannes Regiomantus (d.1476); f. 178r contains a Yemenite haggadah text.

In addition to the characteristic 15th-century Sephardic semi-cursive Hebrew script in which the manuscript is written, the dating of the present lot is supported by the presence of watermarks identifiable as being from ca. 1457 CE. (Briquet: Les Filigranes, # 689—ring)

Sotheby's gratefully acknowledges the information used here from a report on the present manuscript prepared by Dr. Benjamin Richler, former Director of the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts.