SEFER HA-MANHIG (LITURGICAL AND OTHER CUSTOMS), RABBI ABRAHAM BEN NATHAN HA-YARHI, CONSTANTINOPLE: SOLOMON BEN MAZZAL TOV, 1519

The first edition of one of the first custumals written in Europe.

Rabbi Abraham ben Nathan (ca. 1155-1215), a Provencal scholar often termed “Ha-Yarhi” due to the many years he spent in Lunel (yareah in Hebrew means “moon”), studied in his youth with some of the leading lights of French and Provencal Jewry, especially Rabbi Isaac ben Samuel of Dampierre (d. ca. 1185). He later wandered through many countries, eventually (before 1204) settling in Toledo, where he apparently became a member of the local rabbinical court. In the course of his journeys, he recorded the customs and practices, especially in the area of prayer and synagogue usage, of the various communities he visited, which he later collated in the form of a work he called Manhig olam. The present lot, published under the title Sefer ha-manhig, is the first edition of Ha-Yarhi’s custom collection. In it, the author demonstrates that there is a halakhic basis for every minhag, and along the way he provides valuable information on the local rituals of Germany, England, Spain, and southern and northern France, some of which have left no other literary legacy.