Bidspirit auction | CHAIM SHABTHAI (MaHaRCHa”SH) . Torath

CHAIM SHABTHAI (MaHaRCHa”SH) . Torath Chaim [responsa]. Parts I, II and III (complete). FIRST EDITIONS . Three parts bound in three volumes. * Part I: ff. 5,148. * Part II: ff. 4, 128. * Part III: ff. 8, 192.  Includes responsa from BRAZIL. Browned, various expert paper repairs, small loss provided in facsimile. Modern uniform calf-backed boards. Folio. Vinograd, Salonika, 211-12 & 223. Salonika 1713, 1715 and 1722. The Earliest Recorded Responsa from the New World. Torath Chaim, Vol. III, responsa no. 3, discusses the appropriate season to pray for rain. This inquiry was sent from “a faraway land” that is, the Jews of Recife, Brazil, who wrote to R. Chaim Shabthai, Chief Rabbi of Salonika and one of the outstanding rabbinic scholars of his time. The circumstances of living in the tropical climate of Brazil created questions regarding the traditional time to recite the Prayer for Rain. “Thus making the New World’s first contribution to the Responsa Literature.” See M.A. Cohen, Sephardim in the Americas, American Jewish Archives vol. XLIV (1992) p. 218.