Bidspirit auction | LONDON, YA’AKOV. (Ed.) Shivah Einayim

LONDON, YA’AKOV. (Ed.) Shivah Einayim [selected novellea and discourses].  FIRST EDITION.   Endpapers utilizing a recent Hebrew printed epithalamium. Title page with signatures of Dr. Michael Sachs and with occasional marginalia within the text. ff. 4, 68. Upper margin shaved. Modern boards. Sm. 4to. Vinograd, Livorno 57. Livorno, Avraham Meldola, 1745.  Three of the ‘Seven Eyes’ referred to in the title are Ramban’s commentary to portions of Sanhedrin and Makkoth, as well as his Sefer HaZechuth against Ra’avad. The other four ‘Eyes’ are responsa written between R. Yitzchak Aboab, R. di Leon, R. Yitzchak Zayat and R. Nissim Benveneste.  Dr. Michael Sachs (1808-64) served as a rabbi and dayan in Prague and Berlin. He was one of the first of a new generation of German Orthodox rabbis to preach in the German language. In his time Sachs was a noted opponent of Reform, as well as an orator of great ability, so much so that when the nascent separatist Orthodox community of Frankfurt was looking for a spiritual leader, they approached Sachs, before ultimately settling on R. Samson Raphael Hirsch. Unlike Hirsch, Sachs was also a participant in the Jewish Wissenschaft movement, rather than a public critic. Sachs was a historian of Jewish liturgy and published several books on the subject.  The book’s binding utilizes an Italian 18th-century printed wedding poem, in honor of groom Yosef Franco and bride Simha Franco. The author is Ya’akov ben Rabbi Abraham Meldola.