SEFER HA-TAKKANOT VE-HASKAMOT U-MINHAGIM (COLLECTION OF JERUSALEM REGULATIONS AND CUSTOMS), EDITED BY RABBI HAYYIM ABRAHAM GAGIN, JERUSALEM: ISRAEL BEN ABRAHAM BAK, 1842

The second Hebrew book printed in Jerusalem, this copy including the rare final leaf.

On his return from Egypt in the fall of 1840, Israel Bak stopped off in Jerusalem for a few months because a plague had struck in Safed. During this time, he was approached by Daniel Alkalai with a proposal that he reopen his publishing house in the city, partly in order to counteract the efforts of the local Christian mission. Bak agreed on condition that the rabbis of Jerusalem would grant him a monopoly on printing throughout the Holy Land for as long as his press functioned. This having been received, Bak set up shop in the city, founding its first Hebrew press, which produced its first title in 1841. The present lot is a copy of the second book printed here.

Sefer ha-takkanot ve-haskamot u-minhagim is a composite work. The first part, Sefer takkanot (ff. [5r-16v], 13r-45r, [74v-75r]), compiled by Chief Rabbi Hayyim Abraham Gagin (1787-1848), is a compendium of Hebrew and Ladino communal ordinances, issued by various groups of rabbis from the early eighteenth century onward, concerning the administration of the Jewish community of Jerusalem. These regulate issues such as taxation, inheritance, the renting and selling of property, the safeguarding of a synagogue’s silver ornaments, cardplaying, women’s dress, and the rights of unmarried men and women to live in, move about, and/or be employed in the city. The second section, Dinei minhagei yerushalayim (ff. 45r-[74v]), was composed at Gagin’s request by Rabbis Jacob Capiloto and Abraham Ashkenazi (1811-1880). Divided into four sections on the model of the Shulhan arukh, it collects the practices and customs observed in Jerusalem from numerous written and oral sources. The volume closes with two letters signed by the Sephardic rabbis of Jerusalem in 1841 and 1842 granting Bak the monopoly he had requested.