Menorat ha-Ma'or — manuscrit unique au monde (MS. Hunt. 161)

Copy made about fifty years after the author's death (1391), that is, around 1441, on paper, in Sephardic script. The work comprises twenty chapters covering the entire rabbinic ethical program: tsedaka, prayer, Torah, mitzvot, gemilut ḥasadim, the honoring of the Sabbath and festivals, family life, virtues, etc. According to research by Ron Lasri (Ben-Gurion University), it constitutes the first Hebrew anthology to systematically translate large portions of the Talmudic aggadah from Aramaic into Hebrew. The only manuscript in the world (the basis of the editio princeps, Enelow 1929–1932). Provenance: 1 Copy made around 1441 2 Robert Huntington collection (chaplain in Aleppo, 1671–1681) 3 Bodleian Library, since 1693 Codicological notice — origin Maghreb or post-1391 Spain; copyist: anonymous (copy around 1441); script: Sephardic; early catalogues: Neubauer Catalogue 1886 · 1485; editorial status: Critical edition available. — Source: Mémoires des Manuscrits Juifs du Moyen-Âge Maghrébin (MMJMM), https://mmjmm.org/corpus/catalogue/bodleian-ms-hunt-161; manuscript held at the Bodleian Library (Oxford).

Sources & resources

• Steinschneider, Moritz. Catalogus Librorum Hebraeorum in Bibliotheca Bodleiana, Berlin, 1852-1860, n° 5447.
• Neubauer, Adolf. Catalogue, Oxford, 1886, vol. I, n° 1485.
• Enelow, Hyman G. (éd.). Menorat Ha-Maor by R. Israel Ibn Al-Nakawa, New York, Bloch, 1929-1932 — édition princeps intégrale.
• Fiche MMJMM : https://mmjmm.org/corpus/catalogue/bodleian-ms-hunt-161