SIDDUR (DAILY PRAYER BOOK) ACCORDING TO THE GENERAL ASHKENAZIC RITE (MINHAG ASHKENAZ) WITH A COMMENTARY ATTRIBUTED TO RABBI ELIEZER BEN NATHAN OF MAINZ, OSTROG: ELIEZER SOLOMON MARGOLIOTH, 1830

A unusually rare copy of an important Ashkenazic-rite liturgy.

In about 1827, Rabbi Ephraim Zalman Margolioth of Brody (1760-1828) published two prayer books, one according to the general Ashkenazic rite (minhag ashkenaz) and the second according to the Hasidic rite (minhag sefarad), in Ostrog. Each was accompanied by a commentary attributed to Rabbi Eliezer ben Nathan of Mainz (Ra’avan; ca. 1090-1170), published from a manuscript in Margolioth’s possession. (The manuscript would apparently eventually make its way into the collection of Rabbi Issachar Dov Rokeah, the Belzer Rebbe [1854-1927].) The present lot, titled Seder tefillat nehora rabba, appears to be the second edition of the minhag ashkenaz prayer book of ca. 1827 (a third edition would appear in 1832), printed by Margolioth’s nephew. It includes a Passover Haggadah, Pirkei avot, Margolioth’s Beit tefillah (a short treatise in fifteen chapters on the proper intentions required during prayer), and various laws and customs, some of which derive from the halakhic writings of Rabbi Moses Mat (ca. 1551-ca. 1606).