Mishneh Torah, Introduction and Sefer ha-Madda (Book of Knowledge), Rabbi Moses Maimonides, [Yemen, 14th century]

One of about ten substantial pre-fifteenth-century Yemenite copies of Sefer ha-madda to have come down to us. 

Rabbi Moses Maimonides (Rambam; 1038-1204) began writing his magnum opus in about 1170. The work set out to organize all the halakhic material scattered throughout the Mishnah, Tosefta, midrashim, and Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds into fourteen synthetic books (emphatically not commentaries), which were then subdivided into eighty-three treatises comprising a total of one thousand chapters. This included even those laws that were no longer applicable in the post-Temple era, as well as those observed only in the Land of Israel–a major innovation when compared with previous halakhic compendia. Rambam titled his project Mishneh torah (lit., Repetition of the Torah), “because a person will first read the Written Torah [Bible] and later read this, and in that way he will know the entire Oral Torah without having to consult any other book in between.”

Unlike Maimonides’ other works, which were written in Judeo-Arabic, the Mishneh torah was composed in clear, lucid Mishnaic Hebrew, making it accessible to scholars and laymen alike, as well as to Jews across the Diaspora, including those living outside of an Islamic milieu. Its prestige derives not only from the authority of its compiler but from its comprehensiveness and its masterful, intuitive organization. Following its initial publication ca. 1180, the Mishneh torah would go on to exert enormous influence on Jewish thought and practice, especially after Rabbis Jacob ben Asher (ca. 1270-1340) and Joseph Caro (1488-1575) elected to use it as one of the pillars upon which they structured their own vastly important halakhic codes, the Arba‘ah turim and Shulhan arukh, respectively. 

In the introduction to his edition of the Mishneh torah, Rabbi Joseph Kafih, one of the foremost Maimonides scholars of the twentieth century, writes of the Yemenite tradition that during Rambam’s lifetime expert scribes were dispatched from Yemen to copy the great rabbi’s books, including the numerous updates and corrections he made over the years. Because of Yemenite Jewry’s enormous respect for Maimonides and their general conservatism, they refused to alter Rambam’s words based on their own logical deductions, making their manuscripts some of the most authoritative available, especially when compared with the error-ridden and censored printed editions. 

The present lot comprises the vast majority of the Introduction plus first book in the Mishneh torah series, entitled Sefer ha-madda. In the Introduction, Maimonides recounts the history of the Oral Torah, briefly lists all of the Torah’s 613 commandments, and indicates where each commandment is treated within his work. Sefer ha-madda discusses some of the most fundamental aspects of Jewish belief, including one’s relationship to the Divine and to Jews and Gentiles, the importance of Torah study and repentance, and the prohibitions against idolatry, blasphemy, sorcery, and necromancy. Interestingly, a later note on p. 65 of this particular copy of Sefer ha-madda records the year of Maimonides’ birth as 1449 AG, corresponding to 1138 CE, the year most contemporary scholars believe to be correct. Like many other of his Yemenite manuscripts, David Solomon Sassoon purchased this volume from Elias Abraham Saadia Solomon Halfon of Aden (January 26, 1927), who went by the name Elias Abraham Morris when he later immigrated to New York City. It is one of about ten known substantial Yemenite copies of Sefer ha-madda likely made before the fifteenth century and thus constitutes an important witness to this fundamental text of Jewish law.

Contents

pp. 1-32: mitsvat aseh 132-description of Sefer ahavah;

pp. 33-65: overview of Hilkhot berakhot-end of the Introduction;

pp. 66-101: Hilkhot yesodei ha-torah;

pp. 101-130: Hilkhot de‘ot;

pp. 130-152: Hilkhot talmud torah;

pp. 153-200: Hilkhot avodah zarah ve-hukkot ha-goyim;

pp. 200-230: Hilkhot teshuvah 1:1-10:3a.

Physical Description

230 of about 260 pages (9 1/2 x 6 1/2 in.; 243 x 165 mm) (likely original collation: [i_1-8 lacking], ii⁸ [ii_1-2 lacking], iii⁸ [iii_9-10 lacking], iv⁹ [iv₁ lacking], v-xii¹⁰, xiii⁸, xiv² [xiv_3-4 lacking]) on Yemenite (unmarked) paper; modern pagination in pencil in Arabic numerals in upper-outer corners; first and final pages of each quire signed in pen at head and foot, respectively, in Hebrew characters (sometimes damaged or obscured); first page of each quire signed in pen in Arabic words in upper-outer corners (sometimes damaged or obscured); unidentified symbols often appearing in upper-outer corners of openings comprising a transition from one quire to the next; written in Yemenite square (headings and incipits) and semi-cursive (text body) scripts in black ink; single-column text of twenty-two lines per page; ruled with a mastara (ruling board); justification of lines via dilation or contraction of final letters, insertion of ornamental space fillers, use of anticipatory letters, and slanted inscription of final words (producing a “carpet fringes” effect); original horizontal catchword in lower margin of last page of each quire; some later horizontal catchwords in lower margins of other pages as well; periodic Tiberian or Babylonian vocalization of text; Tetragrammaton abbreviated to three yodin in a row with a dot above the middle one; corrections, strikethroughs, and/or marginalia (including in Judeo-Arabic) in primary and secondary hands. Enlarged multicolored (red, green, and/or yellow) headings and incipits, often accompanied by similarly multicolored interlace panels and/or rosettes. Probably lacking about 15 folios, though one or more pages may have been blank (see collation); scattered staining and dampstaining; some abrasion of lettering; short tears intermittently in lower edges (e.g., pp. 57-94, 101-124); corners rounded; tape repair in gutter at head of pp. 1-5; extensive restoration of pp. 31-34, with slight damage to text; lower-outer corner of pp. 49-50 almost lost; lower-outer corners of pp. 65-68, 129-130 lost; short tears in outer edge of pp. 71-72; small marginal hole on pp. 73-74; lower and outer edges of pp. 149-150 cropped; repairs in gutters of pp. 227-230, slightly affecting text. Modern brown buckram, slightly worn; paper ticket with title affixed to top of spine; shelf mark lettered in gilt at base of spine; modern paper flyleaves and pastedowns.

Literature

Moses Maimonides, Sefer mishneh torah, ed. Joseph Kafih, 25 vols. (Kiryat Ono: Mekhon Mishnat ha-Rambam, 1984-1986), 1:10-11, 27, 3:10-12.

David Solomon Sassoon, Ohel Dawid: Descriptive Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the Sassoon Library, London, vol. 2 ([Oxford]: Oxford University Press; London: Humphrey Milford, 1932), 699 (no. 951).