Significant Discovery: Manuscript “Ibbur Shanim” by Rabbi Yissachar Ibn Sussan of Tzfat. With Extremely Important ...

Significant Discovery: Manuscript “Ibbur Shanim” by Rabbi Yissachar Ibn Sussan of Tzfat. With Extremely Important Notes by the Author, Iincluding a First-Hand Account Regarding Maran Rabbi Yosef Caro that were Never Printed or Recorded in any Other Known Manuscript. Tzfat, 1573.

In addition to the book Ibbur Hashanim, there are additional pages with new, previously unknown, information about the life and children of HaRav Yissachar Ibn Sussan, student of the Ralbach. Additional pages feature segulot and cures in his handwriting.

Now, for the first time, the book “Tikkun Yissachar”, also called “Ibbur Shanim”, by Rabbi Yissachar Ibn Sussan has been discovered. Rabbi Yissachar was one of Tzfat’s 16th century sages, in the generation of Rabbi Yosef Caro, the Arizal, the Ramak, Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz and other great leaders who lived then in Tzfat.

The manuscript is in the author’s handwriting. It was completed in Nisan, 1574 in Tzfat. Even after its completion, Rabbi Yissachar continued writing in it.

In 1575 R' Yissacher added a long note with a first-hand account of his visit to the great Ravi Yosef Caro, author of the Beit Yosef and the Shulchan Aruch.

HaRav Yissachar writes that a week or two before the Beit Yosef passed away, he went to visit HaRav Caro, with the Ibbur Shanim, which includes instructions on how to read the Torah portions after Pesach. Upon hearing what was written, the Beit Yosef was shocked! [He "bit two of his fingers with his teeth"!]

This event from HaRav Caro's life is not known from any other source

[For further details of this account, see the attached article by R' Yosef Aviv]

This manuscript is the foundation of the edition of Ibbur Shanim printed in Venice in 1579. A few annotations added by the author to the sheets of the manuscript are found in the Venice printing, but additional annotations and additions, of inestimable significance - were not printed in or known from any other manuscript.

A thorough inspection shows hundreds of changes and omissions in the printed edition, for the most part to the advantage of the manuscript. What’s more, in some places the wording of the manuscript changes the content as per practical Halachah.

In the manuscript, Rabbi Yissachar occasionally mentions his teacher, the Ralbach (Rabbi Levi ben Chaviv), with great esteem (calling him ‘Mori’) and integrates matters that he heard from him. For example, he describes the feast of Purim that fell on Shabbos, which was conducted by the Ralbach.

In addition, this is one of the earliest written sources that mention the custom of eating fruit on Tu Bishvat.

Rabbi Yissachar Ibn Sussan, one of Tzfat’s sages: His exact date of birth is unknown; it seems he was born around 1510-1516, in Fez, Morocco. In his youth, Rabbi Yissachar traveled with his family to Eretz Yisrael and first settled in Yerushalayim. He learned in his youth under the Ralbach. Afterwards, he moved to Tzfat, where he immersed himself in learning under the sages of the generation.

20x15 cm. 26 leaves. Approximately 30 lines on a page. Oriental, 16th Century writing.

Accompanying this manuscript is a 12-page academic essay on its contents by the renowned scholar of Kabbalah, R' Yosef Avivi.