Volume of booklets handwritten by R. Shmuel Yehuda Matzliach HaKohen of Modena - sermons he delivered to his community on various occasions. [Italy, Modena? 18th century].
Handwritten by the author, with deletions and many marginal additions. The volume comprises 5 booklets; an additional booklet is enclosed. The booklets are bound with their original paper covers. The details of the sermon with the author’s initials - "Sh.Y.M.K." = Shmuel Yehuda Matzliach Kohen, appear on the covers and first page of each booklet. To the best of our knowledge, these sermons were never published.
The booklets contain the following sermons (in order of binding): "Sermon for Chanukah regarding the virtue of Torah and Torah supporters, in honor of the Talmud Torah society of Busseto, by me, Sh.Y.M.K.", "Sermon for a circumcision on Parashat Tazria, by me, Sh.Y.M.K", "Sermon for Parashat Balak and the 17th of Tammuz, by me, Sh.Y.M.K.", "Sermon for the seventh day of Pesach, by me, Sh.Y.M.K., also appropriate for Parashat Beshalach", "Sermon for a circumcision on Parashat Behar Sinai". Separate booklet: "Sermon for Shabbat Parashat Chukat, by me Sh.Y.M.K".
R. Shmuel Yehuda Matzliach HaKohen, who customarily signed his name with the acronym "Sh.Y.M.K.", was an Italian Torah scholar in the 18th century, rabbi, educator and preacher in Modena and the surroundings. Not much information is known about him, apart from his extant sermons and compositions, which disclose his Torah preeminence and erudition both in revealed and hidden realms of the Torah. He was born ca. 1740. Most of his extant works consist of his sermons. His first sermon known to us, delivered in Brescello, is dated 1769 (see: Mikavtze’el, Chevrat Ahavat Shalom, issue 31, p. 519). There is a manuscript in the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary (Ms. Kaufmann A 163), which includes novellae sent from a rabbi in "Mantua, 1769" to "Shmuel Yehuda Matzliach HaKohen, teacher in Brescello". In the 1790s, he was active in Modena and delivered sermons there. The last date mentioned in his writings is the year 1795 (see: Mikavtze’el, ibid). He also authored a booklet of prayers and segulot, and this indicates that he engaged in practical kabbalah. One of the amulets is introduced as follows: "Text of a amulet which I, Sh.Y.M.K., instituted and wrote, for a Jew from Colorno who was imprisoned… and praise G-d he derived much benefit from it, as he testified after he was released a year before the designated time" (Mikavtze’el, ibid). The sermons in these booklets are replete with thoughts and commentaries, drawn from the Bible, Midrash and kabbalah. In the sermon for the seventh day of Pesach (p. 86), R. Shmuel Yehuda Matzliach quotes teachings from the kabbalist R. Shimshon Chaim Nachmani of Modena, the Zera Shimshon, with the following introductory words: "From what my master and teacher wrote on this topic, in his delightful book Zera Shimshon…". This discloses that R. Shmuel Yehuda Matzliach was a disciple of the Zera Shimshon.
6 booklets (5 are bound together in a new binding, with their original paper covers). Over one hundred written pages. 13-14 cm. Overall good condition. Stains and wear.