Abudraham [commentary to prayers]

ABUDRAHAM, DAVID BEN JOSEPH

Astruc de Toulon

Constantinople

1514

Second edition (first edition printed in Lisbon, 1489). Printed in double-columns in rabbinic type. Early owners signature: Jacob ben Eliezer Ha’levi Herlesheim

Vinograd, Const. 38; Yaari, Const. 22; Mehlman 603; not in Adams

David ben Joseph Abudraham of Seville’s liturgical commentary deals with all synagogue ritual, especially focusing on prayers and benedictions. He was motivated to write the work in response to contemporary liturgical confusion, “the lengthly exile and intensive persecution have lead to a variety of customs in different kingdoms so that most ordinary folk, when they offer their prayers to God are practically clueless about their meaning and have no understanding of the sense and structure of liturgical practices.” Abudraham’s work accordingly does not only provides clear rules, but devotes much space to the reasons behind many customs as well as commenting on the text of the prayers and the more important piyutim. The work pays close attention to the text and interpretation of all daily, Sabbath, monthly, Festival and fast-day prayers as well as providing guidance on lectionaries, the calender and an extensive treatise upon the various benedictions. The work comprises an invaluable encyclopaedia concerning the ritual customs of Spain, France, Provence and Germany. It also influenced the future direction of Sephardic liturgy by reflecting its contemporary confusion. See S.C. Reif, Judaism and Hebrew Prayer (1993) pp. 204-5. As a point of printing-history, the Hebrew language press was the only one to exist throughout the Ottoman Empire until the 17th-century. In its first two hundred years of existence (the first Hebrew book in the region was printed in Constantinople in 1492), it produced some 300 Hebrew texts