(Attributed to). Sepher HaChinuch [“Book of Education”: Exposition of the 613 precepts divided according to the pericope of the week]

AARON HALEVI OF BARCELONA

Daniel Bomberg

Venice

1523

FIRST EDITION. Unusually wide-margined copy.

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

The Sepher HaChinuch is regarded as one of the mainstays of rabbinic scholarship and is the subject of numerous super-commentaries. In his introduction, the Author writes he intended the work to arouse within his son and companions a desire to regularly study the precepts contained within each week’s portion of the Torah. The identity of the author of Sepher HaChinuch remains a mystery, although it is certain the work was composed at the end of the 13th-century. For a brief discussion of recent scholarly consensus, see EJ, Vol. VII, cols. 1126-27.