Maseches Megillas Taanis
Historic Edition Printed After the 1648-49 Massacres
Amsterdam, 1659
The renowned maseches ‘Megillas Taanis’ written during the Second Temple period, containing a list of dozens of days throughout the year on which fasting is prohibited due to joyous events that occurred to the Jewish people.
This is the first time ‘Megillas Taanis’ was printed as an independent work (previously it was printed together with other sefarim).
In the present edition, two important commentaries by the Gaon Rabbi Avraham Segal of Cracow were printed for the first time:
1: ‘Chiddushei Mahara’ containing a summary of Rashi and Tosafos’ opinions and textual variations on the masechta;
2: Commentary of ‘Mahara’ expanding on the matters discussed.
Following the Chmielnicki massacres of 1648-1649 which continued, with lesser intensity, until very close to the time of printing, the author fled from his city of Cracow, Poland, to Hamburg, where he first encountered the sefer ‘Megillas Taanis’ and immediately began writing his commentaries on it.
At the beginning of the sefer is a lengthy introduction by the author, who miraculously escaped from the hands of the murderers: "I was in the midst of the upheaval, and I was a hairsbreadth away from death… for this my heart grieves… for what I saw, when the enemies approached us. Several Jewish souls jumped into the water Al Kiddush Hashem, and I was like a dove in the clefts of the rock, and Hashem saved me….."
He established the day of his rescue, Rosh Chodesh Iyar, as a day of fasting, with the following night for thanksgiving and celebration.
He also writes with immense pain about those killed in the year 1648 and mentions the public fast that the Gedolei Hador established in their memory, on the 20th of Sivan.
Rare.
The author,
Rabbi Avraham HaLevi of Cracow, was an exceptional gaon who authored a commentary on the Torah based on aggadah, kabbalah, and halacha, which was never printed. In 1656, he was miraculously saved from the Chmielnicki massacres and arrived in Hamburg where he studied in the Sephardic yeshivos in the city.
Amsterdam, 1659. First edition of the commentary.
Page Count: 25 leaves.
Condition: Good; restorations to the title page; last line of title page is cut off. Water stains. New leather binding.
