HUKKAT HA-PESAH (PASSOVER HAGGADAH WITH THE COMMENTARIES OF RABBIS MOSES PESANTE AND SOLOMON BARUCH), SALONIKA: JOSEPH BEN ISAAC JABEZ, 1569

Rabbi Moses Pesante (d. 1573) was an envoy from the city of Safed whose peregrinations in Asia Minor and the Balkans began in 1565. Attempting to return to his native Safed, Pesante would meet a violent death at the hands of Turkish bandits on his final journey in 1573. In an ironic twist of fate, the concluding words of the colophon of this volume (f. 70r), written before he embarked, include a poignant entreaty that God will find favor with him and “bring me to my land and my birthplace in joy and song.”

The two primary commentaries found in this Passover Haggadah are the work of Pesante and Rabbi Solomon Baruch. Pesante makes extensive use of medieval expositions by Rabbis Isaiah di Trani (ca. 1200-before 1260) and Zedekiah Anav (thirteenth century), author of the Shibbolei ha-leket. In addition to the present volume, Pesante published two other works in Salonika in 1569 (both originally issued in Constantinople about two years prior): Ner mitsvah, a commentary on Rabbi Solomon Ibn Gabirol’s Azharot for Shavuot (see lot 214), and Yesha e-lohim, an exposition of the hosha‘not for Sukkot.