Sefer Yesod Kushta Raish
Medrash Shmuel, First Edition, Constantinople 1517.
A Chazal medrash on the Book of Shmuel – printed for the first time from a manuscript.
One of the Rare Kushta Sefarim
In the colophon, emotional words were written by the printers, in which they lament the loss of books following the expulsion from Spain and the wanderings, and the diminishing of wisdom as a result, and they therefore see the dissemination of holy books as a supreme goal.
Following the Medrash Shmuel there are Teshuvot by Rav Saadia Gaon on Techiyat Hametim. This is the first time that teachings from Rav Saadia Gaon were ever printed!!
The responses are to ten intriguing questions that Rav Saadia Gaon was asked by his students regarding ‘resurrection’, such as: Will those who rise to life die again, or will they live forever? What will be their life expectancy? Will there be free will after the resurrection? How will the earth contain all those who rise to life?
These words of Rav Saadia Gaon are fundamental and essential in matters of Techiyat Hametim, and all who deal with this have quoted from his words.
At the end of the colophon: ‘
And the completion of this book was on the 8th day of the month of Adar in the year [5]277 [1517], and printed in the great city of Constantinople which is under the rule of our lord King Sultan Suleiman Selim, may his glory rise and his kingdom be exalted in his days and in our days Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell safely and a redeemer will come to Zion…’
In the introduction to a later print of the Medrash Shmuel (Vilna 1925), the publisher writes that the first edition of the Medrash Shmuel is so rare to find that he had to obtain a copy that was sent to him specially from Tunisia.
In his introduction the publisher Buber praises the accuracy of the Constantinople edition (more than the manuscript before him) and laid it as the foundation for his edition.
The first page is blank and the printing begins on the reverse side of page 1 with the title ‘Sefer Medrash Shmuel’.
Constantinople 1517 [5277]. First edition. Page count: 14, [4] leaves
Size: 24 cm
Condition: On the inner margins of the pages there are defects with missing edges, restored through restoration.
Stefansky, Sifrei Yesod No. 131
Provenance: Yechezkel Toporowich Collection
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