SIDDUR (DAILY PRAYER BOOK) ACCORDING TO THE SEPHARDIC RITE, EDITED BY RABBI NISSIM ZERAHIAH AZULAI, SAFED: ISRAEL BEN ABRAHAM BAK, 1832

The first Hebrew book printed in the Holy Land after a hiatus of two hundred forty-five years.

The Hasid Israel Bak (1797-1874) began his printing career in his native Berdychiv, Ukraine, in 1815. Perhaps on account of business competition encountered in Slavuta, Bak immigrated to the Land of Israel in 1831 and settled in Safed, where he founded the first Hebrew publishing house in the region since the closure of the Ashkenazi firm almost two and half centuries earlier. He brought two presses and the implements needed for type-cutting and binding with him, and by 1833 he was employing about thirty workers. The present lot is a copy of the first book to appear at the Bak press in Safed, printed using newly-poured Hebrew fonts.

Sefer sefat emet, a Sephardic-rite siddur with prayers for weekdays, Sabbaths, New Moons, Hanukkah, Purim, and various lifecycle events, was edited by Rabbi Nissim Zerahiah Azulai (ca. 1780-1837), grandson of the famous Rabbi Hayyim Joseph David Azulai (Hida; 1724-1806). The younger Azulai writes that he named the book after its place of publication (Sefat ~ Tsefat) and added a commentary, Emet yehgeh, on selected prayers anthologized from previous works, especially those of his grandfather. The volume closes with calendaric material for the following four years, Azulai noting his expectation that the book would achieve great popularity and therefore need to be reprinted within that timeframe. Unfortunately, the Bak press encountered enormous challenges in the following years, ceasing its operations (without reprinting the siddur) in 1836, and Azulai himself died in the great Safed earthquake of January 1, 1837.