Imrei Yosher — commentaire de Vidal ha-Tzarfati de Fès sur Midrash Rabba

Imrei Yosher ("Words of Uprightness"), complete commentary on the Midrash Rabba of the Pentateuch by Vidal ha-Tzarfati (Fez, c. 1550-1620), one of the great Fassi rabbis of the turn of the 16th-17th centuries, son of the dayyan Isaac Tzarfati and disciple of R. Avraham Uzziel, founding figure of the Sarfaty-Tzarfati scholastic lineage (which tradition links to Rabbenu Tam). The manuscript preserves 146 leaves in-4° in Sephardic rabbinic script on paper. The preface invokes Maimonides (Guide of the Perplexed); the text cites Menahem Ziyyuni and Yiṣḥaq ben Sasportas. Additions by the son Yiṣḥaq ha-Tzarfati (from fol. 36v) attest to the family transmission; a late note cites the Ḥida (Shem ha-Gedolim). Identified owner: Aharon Tzarfati. Provenance: 1 Work of Vidal ha-Tzarfati "the elder" (Fez, c. 1550-1620) 2 Additions by his son Yiṣḥaq Tzarfati (fol. 36v and following) 3 Owner: Aharon Tzarfati 4 Mention by the Ḥida (Shem ha-Gedolim) 5 David Oppenheim collection (1664-1736) 6 Bodleian Library, 1829 (Opp. Add. series) Codicological note — origin Fez, central Morocco; script: Sephardic; leaves: 146 folios; dimensions: in-4°; early catalogues: Neubauer Catalogue 1886 · 2336; editorial status: Unpublished. — Source: Mémoires des Manuscrits Juifs du Moyen-Âge Maghrébin (MMJMM), https://mmjmm.org/corpus/catalogue/bodleian-opp-add-4to-113; manuscript held at the Bodleian Library (Oxford).

Sources & resources

• Neubauer, Adolf. Catalogue, Oxford, 1886, vol. I, n° 2336.
• Azulai, Ḥayyim Yosef David. Shem ha-Gedolim, s.v. Vidal Tzarfati.
• Fiche MMJMM : https://mmjmm.org/corpus/catalogue/bodleian-opp-add-4to-113