(Attributed to). Sepher ha-Chinuch [“Book of Education”: Exposition on the 613 precepts]

AARON HALEVI OF BARCELONA

Daniel Bomberg

Venice

1523

FIRST EDITION. On title, inscription of former owner, Abraham Segre ben Nathanel. Replete with rabbinic marginalia in Segre’s hand; many of these cross-references to Maimonides’ Code. On title and final page, censor’s signatures

Vinograd, Venice 78; Habermann, Bomberg 82; Adams A-1

In his introduction, the author writes that he intends the work to arouse the heart of his young son and his youthful companions to study every week the commandments contained in that week’s portion of the Torah. Today, Sepher ha-Chinuch is regarded as one of the mainstays of rabbinic scholarship, being the subject of numerous commentaries, of which the most stellar is no doubt the “Minchath Chinuch” by the nineteenth-century rabbi of Tarnopol, Galicia, R. Joseph Babad. Lately, Machon Yerushalayim issued a three-volume set complete with notes by the late sage of B’nei Berak, R. El’azar Menachem Man Shach. The identity of the author of Sepher ha-Chinuch remains a mystery. He refers to himself in the introduction as “a Jew of the house of Levi of Barcelona.” What is certain, is that the book was composed at the end of the thirteenth century. For a brief discussion of recent scholarly consensus, see EJ, Vol. VII, cols. 1126-27. The Segres of northern Italy were a distinguished rabbinic family. It is thought that the name is of Spanish origin. Chroniclers note two Nathanel Segres: The first, Nathanel ben Judah, a scholar of Lodi, died in 1535. The second, Nathanel ben Aaron Jacob was born in Chieri, Savoy, and died in Cento in 1691. He authored a collection of responsa entitled “Ezer Ya’akov,” which he dedicated to his friend Abraham Rovigo of Modena, and which is still extant in manuscript. It remains to be determined which Nathanel is the father of our own Abraham Segre, composer of the glosses of the present volume. See JE, Vol. XI, p. 157; EJ, Vol. XIV, col. 1112.