Commentary to Mishnayot by the Rambam and Laws of the Rosh on Tractate Sanhedrin – 16-leaf section of the first edition of the Babylonian Talmud, printed by Daniel Bomberg. [Venice: Bomberg, 1520].
Inscription on the first leaf, handwritten and signed by the kabbalist, R. Aharon Berechiah of Modena: " The land and the fullness thereof are G-d's, and He granted this to His young servant, Aharon Berechiah son of R. Moshe of Modena, 1599".
The kabbalist, R. Aharon Berechiah of Modena, author of Maavar Yabok (d. 1639), a leading kabbalist and spiritual leader in Italy. Born to a family of distinguished lineage – "an early family of French exiles" – who settled in Modena, Italy (his relative R. Yehuda Aryeh of Modena also belonged to this family). R. Aharon Berechiah was a disciple of the renowned kabbalist R. Menachem Azariah (the Rama) of Fano, who first taught him the kabbalah of R. Moshe Cordovero and later that of the Arizal. He subsequently studied under R. Yisrael Sarug – a disciple of the Arizal and the one who brought the teachings of the Arizal to Italy. The Chida describes the greatness and holiness of R. Aharon Berechiah in his book Shem HaGedolim (in his entry): " I heard that he had a maggid, and I heard much about his power and wonders".
Shortly after 1610, R. Aharon Berechiah was rabbinically ordained by the rabbis of Safed, and he is one of the few Torah scholars who were ordained by the Safed rabbis when in the Diaspora. He received his ordination based on the recommendation of the emissary R. Yosef Chaim, who stayed in his home and testified to his preeminence and holiness before the Safed Torah scholars. The text of the ordination was published in Responsa Maharitatz HaChadashot (Jerusalem 1979, Part II, no. 201), without the names of the rabbis, yet it may be assumed that the signatories included the following Safed Torah scholars of that time: R. Moshe Galante, R. Yom Tov Tzahalon, R. Avraham Gabriel, R. Chiya HaRofeh, R. Suleiman ibn Ohana and R. Masoud Azulai.
R. Aharon Berechiah of Modena is renowned for instituting prayer orders and customs accepted throughout the Jewish world. In ca. 1617, R. Aharon Berechiah established a society in his city named Me'irei Shachar, and he compiled for them special prayers and supplications to be recited in early morning. Several years later, he published this order of prayers and supplication as Ashmoret HaBoker (Mantua 1624). As he writes in his work Magen Aharon (in manuscript), this siddur was accepted in many cities in Italy – Florence, Verona, Mantua, Reggio and Pisa.
His many works on the Zohar and kabbalah remained in manuscript, but he became renowned throughout the generations for his book Maavar Yabok, which was accepted throughout the Jewish world. This book, which was published in his lifetime, in 1626 in Mantua, is the main and most important source for the conduct of a person in illness and death, orders of Taharah (purification after death) and burial, prayers by gravesites and more. This classic work was reprinted in dozens of editions until this day, also in abridged versions, and it is quoted extensively in books of Halachah and customs.
His book Maavar Yabok became widely accepted already in his times, as he himself testifies (in his preface to Magen Aharon). It was also recognized by the rabbis of Safed.
Leaves 115-129, [1], of Tractate Sanhedrin. Final leaf contains a "registro" table (list of gatherings, to facilitate bookbinding). 37 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains (including dampstains). Worming (primarily to inner margins). Detached leaves.