BABYLONIAN TALMUD, TRACTATE KEREITOT, VENICE: DANIEL BOMBERG, 1528

28 folios (14 x 9 1/2 in.; 357 x 240 mm) (collation: i-iii8, iv4) on paper. Tapering text on f. 8v; manuscript notes/corrections on almost every page (some slightly cropped). Slight scattered staining; light dampstaining in upper margin and upper-outer corner throughout; title supplied and repaired along upper and outer edges; extensive worming on title repaired; minor wormhole in upper margins (sometimes repaired) diminishing through f. 15v; small worm track in gutter near center on ff. 7r-28v; gutters strengthened on ff. 25-28. Modern vellum over board, very slightly scuffed, with gilt-tooled ornaments on spine; title, place, and date lettered in gilt on spine; modern decorated paper flyleaves and pastedowns.

Kereitot, the seventh tractate in the order Kodoshim, takes its name from the biblical karet (excision) punishment, traditionally understood to refer to premature death. The opening mishnaic teaching lists the thirty-six sins – idolatry, desecration of the Sabbath, incest, adultery, etc. – that, if committed intentionally, incur karet but, if committed unintentionally or if doubtfully committed, require the transgressor to bring a hattat (sin offering) or asham (guilt offering), respectively, to the Temple. In six chapters, the treatise deals with the conditions under which these sacrifices must be offered, the unusual hattat brought by women after childbirth, the exact types of forbidden blood whose consumption requires a person to bring a hattat, and the ingredients of the Temple incense, among other topics. The present volume was owned by H.A. Wagenaar (d. 1888), a Jewish scholar and teacher in Amsterdam (later, rector of the local Ashkenazic seminary), who amassed an important collection of Hebrew books and manuscripts that were sold at auction in 1904. Kereitot, like Nedarim, Nazir, Temurah, Me‘ilah, and part of Tamid, is one of the “special tractates” written in a peculiar dialect of Aramaic that seem not to have benefited from final editorial polishing.

Provenance

Isaac Osnapurg [Osnabrück] (f. [1r])

H[yman] A[braham] Wagenaar (f. [1r])

Literature

A.M. Habermann, Ha-madpis daniyyel bombirgi u-reshimat sifrei beit defuso (Safed: The Museum of Printing Art, 1978), 64 (no. 126).

Vinograd, Venice 126