Bidspirit auction | MENASHE BEN YOSEPH BEN PORATH

MENASHE BEN YOSEPH BEN PORATH OF ILYA. Binath Mikra. FIRST EDITION.   ff. (20). Censors notes on verso of title-page. Slight staining, previous owners' marks, natural paper fault on two leaves. Modern boards. 12mo. Vinograd, Grodno 119; Vinograd, Gr'a 1570. Horodna (Grodno), Simcha Zimel ben Yechezkel, 1818. A work on the cantillation notes as factors in the syntax and meaning to the Chumash. Closely linked to the Vilna Gaon, the author here records (f. 3b): “Shamati Mipeh Kadosh HaGaon HaChasid Nishmatho Eden Moreinu Harav R. Elyah MiVilna…” (”I heard from the holy mouth of the Gaon the importance of the simple philological method of Peshat with the Gaon's interpretation of a sample verse.”). For an important discussion of the life and works of R. Menasheh of Ilya see D. Kaminetsky, HaGaon R. Menasheh Me'Ilya, in: Yeshurun Vol. XX, pp. 729-81, where he takes issue with M. Plungian in his work Ben Porath (Vilna, 1859).  See also A. Kosman, Pesher Davar LeRabbi Menasheh Me'Ilya, Talmid HaGra in Yeshurun, Vol. V, pp. 191-203; and I. Barzilai’s, Manasseh of Ilya: Precursor of Modernity Among the Jews of Eastern Europe (Jerusalem, 1999).