Eulogies: Autograph Manuscripts by the Ben Ish Hai (Rabbi Joseph Hayyim al-Hakam of Baghdad), 5661 (=1900)

28 leaves (5 3/8 x 4 1/8 in.; 135 x 103 mm.),  written in black ink on graph paper in Eastern semi-cursive Hebrew script; 17-21 lines per page; minor smudging; occasional strikethroughs and edits by author; modern foliation in pencil. Bound in two units; the first comprising 20 leaves, the second, 8. Unit I: 8 leaves detached, 2 leaves blank, first leaf reinforced in gutter. Unit II: 2 leaves blank. Each unit with its own modern endpapers and marbled wrappers; set within a modern,  paneled and tooled calf, case binding, titles gilt; unit I detached. Housed in matching drop-top box case.

Shaul Regev, “The Homiletical and Ethical Literature of Rabbi Joseph Hayyim,” Yahadut Bavel 1 (1996): 35-42 (in Hebrew).

As the leader of Baghdadi Jewry for five decades, it often fell to Rabbi Joseph Hayyim al-Hakam, author of the Ben Ish Hai, to eulogize prominent members of the community who had passed away. The present lot comprises two units. The first is a twenty page eulogy written in honor of a certain Abu al-Nura, composed by Rabbi Joseph Hayyim of Baghdad, on 24 Kislev 5661 (December 16, 1900), on the eve of Hanukkah, and written in his own hand. The second unit includes portions of several other eulogies, also written by Rabbi Joseph Hayyim in his own hand. These types of materials are extremely scarce, insofar as they are surviving examples of the pastoral relationship of such a pre-eminent rabbinical figure, as a communal rabbi, tending to the bereaved members of his flock.