Lot : 98

Manuscript: Kabbalistic Prayer Book According to the Customs of Baghdad, with Instructions from the Renowned Ben Ish Chai! – 1880

Opening bid: $3,000

Manuscript: Kabbalistic Prayer Book According to the Customs of Baghdad, with Instructions from the Renowned Ben Ish Chai! – 1880

Manuscript Prayer Book: Includes weekday Mincha and Maariv prayers and Shabbat prayers with Kabbalistic intentions, based on Torat Hassod, with instructions from great Kabbalists such as the Ari and the Maharil.

Details:

Author’s Signature: The first page bears the signature of the author, Rabbi Menashe Yehzekel Chaim Ezra Rahamim Shlomo Gergi, a notable family in Iraq, dated 1880.

In one place, the author quotes from the book
Seder HaYom by the Ben Ish Chai, which was printed about a decade earlier.

An additional important correction appears in a different handwriting in the section for Kiddush Levana: "I heard from Rabbi Chaim Yosef, Rabbi Eliyahu, Rabbi Moshe…" referring to the esteemed Ben Ish Chai.

Kabbalists of Babylon used to pray from handwritten prayer books, following the advice of the leader of Babylonian Jewry, the Ben Ish Chai (who himself used a handwritten prayer book). As stated in his book "Seder HaYom": "The best advice for every Jew concerned with the word of God is to write a prayer book by hand, and to write Havaiot’…"

The author is a member of the renowned Gergi family, one of the pillars of the Jewish communities in Iraq. Many of its members were scholars, philanthropists, authors, and held prominent positions. Some were close to the Ben Ish Chai, such as the philanthropist Rabbi Yosef Gergi, who is famously pictured next to the Ben Ish Chai.

This Kabbalistic prayer book is a rare and valuable relic of the prayer practices of the holy and righteous individuals who lived in Babylon.

Baghdad. 1880

Pages: Approximately 460 pages in pocket size: about 11.5 cm

Condition: Well-used, typical of prayer books. Some pages are missing, with tears and wear along the edges of many leaves. Detached pages. Paper is slightly dry.

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