Yaari suggests that Gediliah not only supported himself, but also paid, in part, for the publication of Berit Avaham by his work as an editor for Gabbai. Gediliah's name does, in fact, appear as one of the editors in such works as the response of the Radbaz, Toldetot Adam, and Knesset ha-Gedolah. In his introduction to these works Gediliah expresses his strong desire and supplication to return to Erez Israel, realised in 1660 when he travelled, via Egypt, to Hebron. 13 Gediliah 's homilies are included in Mizbah Eliyah of Elijah ha- Kohen of Izmir (1867).
The Yalkut Shimoni, popular and much reprinted, is seldom issued with a commentary, and those that do exist are brief. Indeed, Gediliah, in his introduction, after praising the Yalkut, remarks on the difficulty of understanding it without a commentary. Berit Avraham, based on the works of Rishonim (early sages) addresses that need, surrounding the text in the same manner as a page of Talmud. Well regarded, it was reputedly reprinted only once, in Livorno, in 1813.14 Unlike the Yalkut, which was printed in its entirety in Livorno, a number of the books published by Gabbai were either begun elsewhere and completed in Livorno, or begun in Livorno and completed elsewhere. In the first category are the Mishnayot with the commentary of Jacob ben Samuel Hagiz, Ez ha- Hayyim. and the cabalistic commentary on the Shulhan Arukh of Hayyim ben Abraham ha- Kohen, Mekor Hayyim. In contrast, the first part of the halakhic digest, Knseset ha- Gedolah by Hayyim ben Israel Benveniste (1603- 73), on Orah Hayyim, was printed in Livorno in 1658. Other volumes appeared later, Hoshen Mishap was printed by Abraham Gabbai in Izmir ( 1660); Sheyari on O.H (Izmir,1671), Yoreh De'ah,( Constantinople, 1711-17 and Izmir, 1731) and the last part of Hoshen Mishpat ( Izmir, 1734).
The Mishanayot with the commentary of Rashi and Ez ha- Hayyim by Jacob Hagiz was printed by Gabbai in 1653- 56. Hagiz (1620-1674), who traced his descent to the exiles of Jerusalem in Spain, was reputedly born in Fez, where his father was rabbi. He spent part of his youth in Italy, and later, for several years, taught in the bet medrash (house of study) of Samuel Aboab, rabbi of Verona, with whom he had a close relationship. When, in 1657, Hagiz left Livorno for the land of Israel, a bet medrash, Beth Jacob, was founded for him in Jerusalem by the de Vega brothers of Verona, well known for their philanthropic works. Hagiz's published works include Ein Yisrael (Verona, 1645), an adaptation of Jacob ibn Habib's Ein Ya'akov; Halakhot Katannot (Venice, 1704), two volumes of response; Korban Minchah (Izmir, c.1675) on aggadah; Petil Tekhelet (Venice, 1652), on the commentary on the azharot of Solomon ibn Gabirol; Tehillot Hokhmah (Verona, 1647), on talmudic methodology; and Almenera de la Luz (1656), a Spanish translation of Isaac Aboab's ethical work, Menorat ha- Me'or, designed as an introduction for Marranos returning to Judaism. 15
Ez ha - Hayyim is certainly deserving of our attention. Printed from 1653 to1656, five of the six volumes are dated in a straightforward manner as, in the year, (419) from the Creation, that is the full era, which equals 1654 (Kodashim is dated (421=1656). The sole exception is Seder Mo'ed, the second volume in the order of Mishnayot, which is dated from the year, "I came to my garden" (Songs of Songs5: 1), that is 413or 1653 of the abbreviated era. Seder Zera'im, the first Order in Mishnayot, was printed by Fancesco dè Rossi in Verona in 1650.16It would seem that Gabbai , when he continued printing this edition of Mishnayot, began where Rossi left off, that is , with Mo'ed. Whether because demand was greater than Gabbai anticipated, or to be able to provide his market with a complete set, Gabbai reprinted Zera'im in 1654, before continuing with the remaining orders of Mishnayot17Hagiz confirms in he introduction to Mo'ed that the printing of his commentary was begun in Verona, but that, " the Lord aroused his spirit" to come to Livorno to complete this work at the press of " the beloved of my soul, the honourable Jediliah ben Isaac Gabbai." He continues, thanking Abraham Israel Amnon, the sponsor," who took in his hand the deeds of Abaham, our father, to benefit the public, may praise stand forever."
The title page of Zera'im differs from that of the other volumes, not only in that it mentions Amnon, but even more so in that it contains the phrase from Rosh Hodesh and holiday liturgy, "may there rise, come, reach, be seen, be favoured, be heard," each entreaty beginning a phrase pertaining to Hagiz's commentary. Ez ha- Hayyim is a large work, the six volumes total more than sixteen hundred pages, printed in a small format, it measures only 15 cm. It brought great acclaim to Hagiz. Elishaeva Carlebach observes that many years of toil and intellectual energy were invested in the Mishnah commentary, which reveals Jacob Hagiz to be a masterful pedagogue, a teacher of Torah par excellence. Jacob used the commentary of Rashi on the Talmud as a touchstone to create a work which is lucid, concise and intimately familiar with the entire range of pertinent scholarship…the work quickly became so popular that, together with Jacob's Tkhillat Hokhma, it formed part of the fixed program of daily studies for many of Constantinople's geat rabbis.18 Hayyim ben Abraham ha-Kohen (1585-1655), author of Mekor hayyim, belonged to a family in Aleppo that traced its ancestry to the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. A leading disciple of Hayyim Vital, Hayyim ha- Kohen served with distinction for two decades as Rabbin Aram Zova. During that time he wrote a number of books with cabalistic content, among them sermons, Torat Hakham (Venice, 1654), Mekor Hayyim, and a number of works still manuscript on various books of the Bible and on prayer.19 In the introduction to Torat Hakham Hayyim ha- Kohen describes his travail in attempting to publish his works. Initially, he sent the manuscript of Alteret Zahav, on Esther, by sea to Europe to be printed. After several years, receiving no response, Hayyim ha - Kohen took all of his manuscripts, existing in single copies only, and embarked for Europe to have them printed. Encountering a storm the ship took refuge at Malta, where pirates boarded it. Seeing that all was lost and being in shallow water, Hayyim ha- Kohen jumped from the ship and made his way ashore, where he faced hunger and wild beasts before coming to an inhabited area. All of his manuscripts, written over twenty years, were lost in one night. With thanks to the Lord for his salvation, Hayyim ha-Kohen rewrote his manuscripts from memory.
In 1650 he was in Constantinople, where the first part of Mekor Hayyim was published. After further travels he returned to Aleppo, and, in 1654? The same year that Tur Bareket appeared in Amsterdam, set out for Italy, where he is credited with introducing individuals, among them Nuta Hannover (d.1663), author of Yeven Mezulah ( Venice,1653) and Sha'arei Zion (Prague,1662) to Lurianic Kabbalah, and influencing , through the latter work, the contemporary prayer- book.. Tur Piteda, the third volume in Mekor Hayyim, was printed by La Stampa del Kaf Nahat in 1655-56.That the next part, Tur Yahalom, was begun but not completed may be attributed to the death of Hayyim ben Abraham ha- Kohen, printing having ceased with his demise .20 Mekor Hayyim is a detailed extensive cabalistic commentary on the Shulhan Arukh. The subtitles of the various parts of this work, that is, Tur Barekhet, Tur Piteda and Tur Yahalom, are taken from Exodus 28:17-18 and 39/10-11, which, referring to the gems in the breastplate worn by the High Priest, states, "You shall fill (They filled) it with stone mounting, four rows of stone: a row of odem, piteda, and barekhet- the one row; the second row…yahalom…" In a lengthy introduction we are told that one who studies this work will find that it is a source of life ( mekor hayyim), for the body and for the soul, which is everlasting.; Furthermore, doing so will arouse the Torah above , influencing this world for life, as it says, "For with you is the source of life" ( Psalms 36:10). He emphasises that all the deeds of a Jew in Torah and mitzvah make a great impression in all of the worlds, above and below. The consequences are everlasting, effecting a person in the present, after his death, as it says," as you decline it will guard you" (Provrbs6: 22), and in the future, at the time of the resurrection. The Torah was given at Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting (Tabernacle) and at the plains of Moab, for the merit of a person at these three intervals, for the benefit of the body and the soul, as is explained in the Zohar. Mekor Hayyim was republished in Pietrokov (-), and more recently in Jerusalem (1995).
Hayyim ha- Kohen 's literary trials did not cease with his death. His commentary on Ruth, Torat Hesed, was published by David Lida under his own name, as Migdal Hesed Amsterdam, 1680). At the end of this work is a reference to Hayyim ha- Kohen.21
Gabbai and his staff did not escape involvement in the Sabbatian controversy in the second half of the sixteenth century. Gershom Sholem informs that tidings about Shabbetai Zevi's activities in Izmir (Smyrna) were brought by " one person, Yedidyahb. Isaac Gabbay, the owner of the Jewish printing house in Smyrna, who later moved his business to Leghorn." Furthermore, Jacob Sasportas, who later reported on these events," probably heard these details in the fifties, on the occasion of a well- documented journey of the old printer to Amsterdam sometime before 1659. Gabbay, who started printing in Leghorn toward the end of 1649 possibly returned to Smyrna on one of his journeys, where he witnessed some of the events"22 Yaari remarks, however, that Gabbai not only did not print in Izmir, but could not have had direct knowledge of what occurred in that location in the 1650s.23
Abraham Gediliah became a supporter of Shabbetai Zevi, associating with Nathan ha- Gazi from 1665 to 1666. His letters from Gazah to Italian Rabbis, particularly those of Livorno, on behalf of Shabbetai Zevi, bringing the false messiah to their attention, and validating the prophecy of Nathan of Gaza (1644- 1680), who identified himself as the prophet Elijah, the precursor of the messiah, were especially effective, given Gediliah 's prominence and that he was well known to the Italian rabbinate. 24 In contrast, Jacob Hagiz, an early and unwavering opponent of Shabbetai Zevi, was one of a prop of prominent Sephardic rabbis to excommunicate the false messiah in Jerusalem in 1665.25 It must have been particularly galling to Hagiz, given his vigorous opposition to Shabbetai Zevi, that one of the leading students in his Beth Jacob yeshiva, Abraham Nathan (later Nathan Benjamin, 1644- 80) ben Elisha Hayyim ha- Levi Ashkenazi, better known as Nathan of Gaza (Ghazzati), became such a prominent figure in the Sabbatian movement.
Hayyim ha- Kohen, having died earlier, could not have been involved with Shabbetai Zevi. Nevertheless, even his name arises in discussions of Shabbetai Zevi, accused by Isaiah Tishby of having provided, in his Torat Hakham, imagery used by Nathan of Gaza. Scholem, however, suggests that the original source of the imagery under discussion was not Hayyim ha- Kohen but Solomon Molkho (c.1500- 1532) in his Sefer ha- Mefo'ar (Salonika, 1529). 26 It is rumoured that about 1655-56, Jedidiah Gabbai was in northern Europe. Amsterdam is suggested by Gershom Scholem, as noted above, and also London, by Cecil Roth. The latter finds possible evidence for such a journey in the fact that Gabbai's son, Abraham, printed two Spanish language works by Menasseh Ben Israel (1604-57), Esperanza de Israel, and his translation of Eduard Nicholas'Apologia por la noble nacion de los Judios. Roth speculates that as Menasseh Ben Israel is not known to have visited Italy, perhaps Gabbai worked briefly in Menasseh's printing-house in Amsterdam. When Menasseh was in London a number of individuals came there to show support for his mission, among them Raphael Sofino, a sponsor of the response of the Radbaz, printed by Gabbai. Roth concludes that " perhaps evenGabbai accompanied [Sofino] to England, meeting Menasseh Ben Israel and becoming close to him." 27
In 1657, Gabbai sent his son, Abraham, who had worked in the Livorno press, with much of their typographical equipment, to Izmir to establish a Hebrew print- shop, the first in that city. Abraham Gabbai remained in Izmir until 1660, when he left for Constantinople, where he printed Hebrew books for a brief period of time. Gabbai subsequently returned to Izmir, printing until 1675, primarily Hebrew books, but also the two Spanish titles noted above. We find him, in 1684, in Salonika, establishing a new Hebrew press in that city, one that was active for several years, although not always under the control of Gabbai.28
The Livorno press closed, for reasons unknown, in 1658, the last title being Hayyim Benveniste ' Knesset ha- Gedolah. Gabbai, concludes his introduction to this work with the prayer, that "as the Lord has given me the merit to print this work, so may He grant me the merit to print many more books". Friedberg and Rophe suggest that the closing be due to the death of the owner, Jedidiah Gabbai. Avraham Yaari, however, informs that, based on the colophon of Solomon Algazi's Halikot Eli, printed in 1663 by Abraham Gabbai in Izmir, we know that Jedidiah Gabbai came to Izmir in that year, for it states, "Before I finish to speak I request permission from the crown of my head, my lord, my father [may the Merciful One watch over and bless him], who has come from Livorno and stands over the press. May the Lord grant him a good old age." Jedidiah Gabbai died in 1671, for he is referenced in the colophons of two works published that year, Moses Benveniste's Dovev Siftei Yeshenim and Hayyim Benveniste's Sheyare Keneset ha- Gedolah, being referred to in the former among the living , and in the latter as among the deceased [blessed be the memory of the righteous]. 29
Bibliography :
13 Yaari, "Two Documents,"p.114.
14 Isaac Benjacob, Ozar ha- Sefarim (Vilna, 1880), P.223n.241.
15 It seems that there was another press in Livorno that issued books in Spanish for returnees to Judaism from Spain belonging to Vincenzo Bonfiglio. In addition to the Almenera, Rofe and Vinograd also record a Psalms (1655). Less well known is a Haggadah, (1654), Yerusahalmi, Haggadah and History (Philadelphia, 1975) plate 58. The sponsor of the first and third, and perhaps the second work too was David de Iaacob Valencin.
16 Ez ha- Hayyim on Seder Zera'im was published in Berlin(1716); Warsaw( 1863); Brooklyn, in its entirety, together with other commentaries, in octavo( 1983) and folio (1988); and on Berakhot, with other commentaries, in Jerusalem, (1988).
17 I would like to thank R. Yitzhak Wilhem, Library of Agudas Chassidiei Chabad Ohel Yosef Yitzhak, for bringing this to my attention. It should also be noted that, for unspecified reasons, Seder Tohorot, the last Order in Mishnayot, preceded Kodashim; mention of this being made by Hagiz in the afterward to the latter.
18 Elishaeva Carlebach, The Pursuit of Heresy:Rabbi Moses Hagiz and the Sabbatian Controversies New York, 1990, pp.23-24.
19 For a listing of these works see Michael, pp.376-77 no.844.
20 Concerning Tur Yahalom see Abraham Haberman,"Ill-starred books," in Areshet III (Jerusalem, 1961), p.108.
21 Hayyim Yosef David Azulai, Shem ha- Gedolim (Vilna, 1854; reprint Tel Aviv, n.d.), Marakhet Seforim mem
33[Hebrew] and Michael, pp.318-19?n.700
22 Gershom S.Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah, (Princeton, 1973), p.150.
23 Abraham Yaari, " Hebrew Printing at Izmir," in Areshet I (Jerusalem? 1958) pp.99-100 n.11.
24 I. Tishby, "R. Abraham Gedalya in the Company of Nathan of Gaza," KS 25 pp.230-31 [Hebrew]
25 The other rabbis include R. Abraham Amigo, Samuel Garnizan, and Jacob Zemah (Scholem, pp.248). Concerning the opposition of Hagiz to Shabbetai Zevi, and even more so that of his son, Moses Hagiz (1672-1751), to the Sabbatian movement see Carlebach, op. cite.C.Roth,"Spanish Printing at Izmir," KS28 (1952\53), p.392; It should be noted that Fuks, L and R.G. Fuks- Mansfeld, Hebrew Typography in the Northern Nethrlands 1585-1815 (Leiden, 1984) makes no mention of Gabbai in their discussion of that Amsterdam press.
26 Concerning the talmudic treatises printed by Abraham Gabbai in Salonika see Marvin J. Heller, Printing
27 the Talmud; A History of the Individual Treatises Printed from 1700 to 1750 ( forthcoming, E.J.Brill,Leid
28 C.Roth,"Spanish Printing at Izmir" KS 28 (1952\53), p.392. It should be noted that Kuks, L. and R.G.
29 Fuks- Mansfeld, Hebrew Typography in the Northern Netherlands 1585-1815 (Leiden, 1884) makes no mention of Gabbai in their discussion of that Amsterdam press. Concerning the Talmudic treatises printed by Abraham Gabbai in Salonika see Marvin J. Heller, Printing the Talmud: A History of the Individual Treatises Printed from 1700 to 1750 (forthcoming, E.J. Brill, Leiden).
30 Yaari, "Izmir," p.99.