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Home page / / The Classic Commentators Magen Avraham & Taz

The Classic Commentators Magen Avraham & Taz

First Edition. Dyhrenfurth, 1692

Beautiful copy!

 

 
Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim with the Turei Zahav commentary by Rabbi Dovid Halevi Segal, Av Beis Din of Lvov, and the Magen Avraham commentary by R abbi Avraham Abele Gombiner (circa 1597-1683), Dayan of Kalish.
 
 
These two sefarim were printed in the present edition for the very first time based on their handwritten manuscripts. Since then, the Taz and Magen Avraham have filled the pages of virtually every subsequent edition of Shulchan Aruch and are regarded as the fundamental commentaries on Orach Chaim in Shulchan Aruch, illuminating every aspect of halachah in daily life.

 

The Taz, Rabbi Dovid Halevi Segal (1586-1667) was born in the city of Ludmir Ukraine (bordering Poland). He was a disciple of the Bach and then married his daughter. During the Chmielnicki massacres in 1648, he fled his hometown, eventually making his way to Lvov where he was appointed Rav and Rosh Yeshivah of the city.

 

The Magen Avraham, Rabbi Avraham Abele Gombiner (circa 1637-1683) was born in the city of Gombin, Poland, and served as Dayan in Kalish. He authored his monumental work, the Magen Avraham, at the behest of his talmidim who entreated him to commit his lessons to writing, and completed it by the age of thirty. He passed away before reaching his prime years.

 

In his preface to this monumental work, the acclaimed Jewish printer and scholar Rabbi Shabsai Meshorrer Bass, who authored t he Sifsei Chachamim commentary on Rashi, relates that the manuscript with the Taz (Turei Zahav) reached his hands, and impressed by the work, he determined to publish it together with the Shulchan Aruch.
 Simultaneously, Rabbi Chaim Gombiner, son of the Magen Avraham, approached him with his father’s masterpiece which he’d originally entitled Ner Yisrael. Rabbi Bass decided to print both commentaries on facing sides surrounding the Shulchan Aruch’s text in a new edition and format that he entitled Maginei Eretz. (Since then, the name Maginei Eretz is synonymous with Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim printed together with the Taz and Magen Avraham.)

 

The first pages of this sefer boast twenty approbations from nearly all the Gedolei Hador of the era, among them the Magen Avraham’s own Rabbanim, and the author of Elya Rabba who attests to the privilege of being a disciple of the Magen Avraham.