Sha’arei Durah With Mevo She’arim Commentary. Rabbinical Pedigree Copy With Handwritten Notations. Lublin, 1574. ...

Sha’arei Durah With Mevo She’arim Commentary. Rabbinical Pedigree Copy With Handwritten Notations. Lublin, 1574. First Edition of the Mevo She’arim Commentary.

Sha’arei Durah includes Halachic rulings of Issur V’Heter. Authored by Rabbi Yitzchak HaLevi of Durah. With Mevo She’arim commentary authored by Rabbi Natan Shapira.

This is a pedigree copy. The title page and other pages of the book feature numerous handwritten owners’ signatures:

1. Top of the title page: “This is a shield for all who sign in it HaKa’ Yair bh”r Yitzchak…”

2. Within the decorative letters ‘Sha’arei’: “Avraham son of mh”r Moshe shlita Bachrach”.

3. Underneath the letters ‘Sha’arei’: “Baruch son of Moshe HaKohen”.

4. Next to the letters ‘Sha’arei’: “Avraham Laredo”.

5. At the foot of the title page an unidentified listing.

6. The endpaper features an additional ownership listing.

7. On leaf 2a within the decorative lettering: “Mh”r Moshe son of HaChaver R’ Menachem z”l Bachrach.

8. On leaf 4a within the decorative lettering: “Moshe bar Menachem shlita referred to as Moshe Bachrach.”

There are numerous handwritten annotations up to leaf 21.

Rabbi Avraham Laredo was one of Gibraltar’s leading sages in the 19th Century. He was one of the authors of ‘Dat Yehudit’ (Jerusalem, 1878).

Rabbi Moshe son of Mendel (Menachem) Bachrach (deceased 1620), was known by the moniker, Reb Moshe Reb Mendelesh. He was a Dayan and Rosh Yeshiva in Germany.

Sha’arei Durah was authored in the 13th Century. It is one of the fundamental and leading works of Halachic rulings of Issur V’Heter. It is oft quoted by the greatest Rabbinical leaders including the Beit Yosef and The Rema. Throughout history, Torah sages filled the margins of manuscripts of this composition with numerous glosses. These notations became the base for many commentaries of later sages including the Maharshal and the Levushim. Rabbi Yisrael Isserlin, author of Trumat HaDeshen was famed for his annotations of this text.

Shaarei Durah is also referred to as ‘She’arim’ and ‘Issur V’Heter’. It remained the central Asheknazi Halachic work until the Shulchan Aruch was published. Torat Chatat of the Rema based its structure on that of the Sha’arei Durah’s ‘she’arim’.

This is a fifth edition copy (first printed in Krakow, 1534). Since various editions of Sha’arei Durah were printed from different manuscripts, later printings can in some way be considered ‘first editions’.

This edition is the first to include the Mevo She’arim commentary authored by Rabbi Natan Shapira. His commentary elucidates the book’s text as well as its numerous glosses. This edition does not include Hilchot Niddah since Rabbi Shapira did not elucidate this section. The Maharshal referred to the edition with the Mevo She’arim’s commentary as, “Issur V’Heter of Moreinu HaRav R’ Natan”.

Lublin, 1574.

First edition of the Mevo She’arim commentary. Rabbi Klonimus son of Mordechai Yaffe Press.

The year of print is according to Yitzchak Rivkind, Dikdukei Sefarim – Sefer HaYovel Lichvod Alexander Marcus, New York, 1950, p422. See details on differences of colophon.

410 leaves. 29 cm. Fair-good condition. Wrinkled pages with some staining throughout. Leaf 6 is detached. Plain, detached binding. Illustrated title page, with staining on upper section and hole.

Vinograd, Lublin 32.