Select manuscript from this collection: B26  B93 B104  S102  10/107

Country of Location:
Country of Location
Switzerland
Location:
Location
Zürich
Library / Collection:
Library / Collection
Braginsky Collection
Shelfmark:
Shelfmark
B103
Manuscript Title:
Manuscript Title
Midrash Hemdat Yamim (Commentary "Pleasant Days", on the Pentateuch)
Caption:
Caption
Paper · 128 ff. · 21 x 15 cm · [Yemen] · [before 1646]
Language:
Language
Hebrew
Manuscript Summary:
Manuscript Summary
The manuscript contains the homiletical commentary on the Pentateuch written by the greatest Yemenite Jewish poet Shalom Shabazi. Little reliable information about Shabazi's life is available. What is known comes from his own works, some 550 poems and a few other texts. Shlomo Zuker, on the basis of careful comparison with a number of other signed manuscripts, notably two manuscripts in the National Library of Israel, a Mishneh Torah fragment (Heb. Ms. 8° 6570) and a Tikhal of 1677 (Yah. Heb. 152), identified this Braginsky manuscript as an autograph of Shabazi. The text of this manuscript, containing the commentary on Genesis 37-Deuteronomy 31, differs from other known versions of the commentary. (red)
DOI (Digital Object Identifier):
DOI (Digital Object Identifier
10.5076/e-codices-bc-b-0103 (http://dx.doi.org/10.5076/e-codices-bc-b-0103)
Permanent link:
Permanent link
https://www.e-codices.ch/en/list/one/bc/b-0103
IIIF Manifest URL:
IIIF Manifest URL
IIIF Drag-n-drop https://www.e-codices.ch/metadata/iiif/bc-b-0103/manifest.json
How to quote:
How to quote
Zürich, Braginsky Collection, B103: Midrash Hemdat Yamim (Commentary "Pleasant Days", on the Pentateuch) (https://www.e-codices.ch/en/list/one/bc/b-0103).
Online Since:
Online Since
10/13/2016
External resources:
External resources
Rights:
Rights
Images:
(Concerning all other rights see each manuscript description and our Terms of use)
Document Type:
Document Type
Manuscript
Century:
Century
17th century
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e-codices · 09/21/2016, 14:46:02

“Of him great deeds and wonders and miraculous and amazing acts are related that he did for Israel and against the mighty and cruel kings that tormented and did evil with Israel in his days, for in his days they exiled the Jews in San’a.” Reference is made here by the well-known traveler Jacob Saphir of Vilna (1822–1855) to the greatest of Yemenite Jewish poets, Shalom Shabazi. Little reliable information about Shabazi’s life is available. What is known comes from his own works, some 550 poems and a few other texts. Among these is his homiletical commentary on the Pentateuch, of which this Braginsky manuscript is an early example. Many legends about the national poet existed among the Jews of Yemen. During his lifetime the political situation for the Jews of Yemen was one of great turmoil, persecution, and messianic anticipation. Shabazi invested his poetry, written in a popular, relatively accessible style, with feelings of hope and redemption.
Shlomo Zucker, in an unpublished description kept with the manuscript, identified the Braginsky manuscript of Shabazi’s commentary as an autograph of the author on the basis of careful comparison with a number of signed manuscripts, notably two manuscripts in the National Library of Israel, a Mishneh Torah fragment (Heb. Ms. 8° 6570) and a ikhlal of 1677 (Yah. Heb. 152). The text of the manuscript, containing the commentary on Genesis 37–Deuteronomy 31, differs from other known versions of the commentary, some of them autographs as well. This indicates that Shabazi, like so many other Jewish authors, considered his commentary a work in progress rather than a final composition. During his lifetime he must have made copies of different versions of his work. The dating of the Braginsky manuscript is based on a statement by Shabazi in a later version of the commentary, published in Jerusalem in 1983 on the basis of a manuscript from 1672, in which he noted that he finished an earlier version of the commentary in 1646. The Braginsky volume, from which the beginning of Exodus 21 is shown here, may well be the earliest version of the commentary.

A Journey through Jewish Worlds. Highlights from the Braginsky collection of Hebrew manuscripts and printed books, hrsg. E. M. Cohen, S. L. Mintz, E. G. L. Schrijver, Amsterdam, 2009, p. 96.

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A Journey through Jewish Worlds. Highlights from the Braginsky collection of Hebrew manuscripts and printed books, hrsg. E. M. Cohen, S. L. Mintz, E. G. L. Schrijver, Amsterdam, 2009, p. 96-97.

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