HAVATSELET HA-SHARON (COMMENTARY ON DANIEL), RABBI MOSES ALSHEKH, [CONSTANTINOPLE: SOLOMON BEN ISAAC JABEZ], 1563

The first edition of Alshekh’s first published work.

Rabbi Moses Alshekh (d. after 1593), often referred to as “The Holy Alshekh,” received his early education in Salonika before immigrating to Safed and there becoming a prominent halakhic authority, yeshiva dean, and preacher. His fame rests mainly on a series of kabbalistically-inflected commentaries on almost the entire Hebrew Bible that he adapted from sermons he delivered on Sabbaths. His general exegetical approach was to begin a comment by asking a variety of questions whose answers delved into the thematic unity of the biblical text and expounded important religious, ethical, and philosophical ideas. Parts of Alshekh’s oeuvre were printed during his lifetime, and the rest was published by his son Hayyim. His commentaries achieved enormous popularity and would go on to be reissued numerous times, sometimes in abbreviated form. The present lot is a fine copy of Alshekh’s commentary on the book of Daniel, printed in Constantinople (not Safed, as some had thought) using the same type that features in the 1562 Sefer ha-emunot ve-ha-de‘ot (see lot 230).