Bidspirit auction | HAI BEN SHERIRA. (Gaon of

HAI BEN SHERIRA. (Gaon of Pumbeditha). Mishpatei Shevu’oth [“A Treatise on Oaths”]. With Midrashic material on the blessings of Ya’akov to his children, and Braitha Melacheth HaMishkan. FIRST EDITION. Title within decorative cartouche. ff. 55. Modern boards. 8vo. Vinograd, Venice 951. Venice, Daniel Zanetti, 1602. R. Hai b. Sherira Gaon (939–1038) was the last of the great Gaonim of Mesopotamia. Only fragments of the Arabic original of this work are extant, this Hebrew rendering was compiled by an unknown translator. This work on monetary rules and oaths contains the author’s opposition to the annulment of vows recited on Yom Kippur eve. His (non-absolute) formulation of the Kol Nidrei prayer reads: “Of all vows…which we have vowed…and have omitted to fulfill either through neglect or under constraint, we pray that the Lord of heaven may absolve and pardon us.” See M.J. Heller, The Seventeenth Century Hebrew Book, pp. 86-7.