Or 17063

British Army WWI Pigeon Service Book. Used by Hakham Ezra Reuben Dangoor (HED) as a notebook to record sermons and other Jewish items on Rabbinic literature, theology, and biography.

HED’s pagination seems to occasionally repeat numbers.

Folios 1 – 8r: Sermons associated with the Scroll (Megillah / מגילה) of Esther, including a eulogy and a sermon for the Sabbath before Purim, the Sabbath of Zakhor / זכור = ‘Rember’. From the work Mine metiḳa / מיני מתיקה, loaned to HED by Hakham Ḥayim.

Folios 8v – 14: Sermon for the Sabbath before Passover, Shabbat ha-Gadol / שבת הגדול, ‘The Great Sabbath’, copied and glossed by HED, from the work Shemen ha-mor / שמן המור, at Hakham Ḥayim’s.

Folios 15 – 18: Sermon for the ‘Sabbath of the Bride’. [The “bride” is the Torah. This may be a reference to the ancient custom for community to set aside a block of time dedicated to Torah study.] The Torah manifests the Divine Presence (Shekhinah). Summarised from the work Hagut Lev / הגות לב.

Folios 19 – 21: Sermon for a eulogy. From the works of Hakham Rabbi Tsadḳa Ḥusin / צדקה חוצין of sainted memory (the first, 1699 – 1772).

Folios 22 – 23r: On Pericope Toledot / תולדות. From ibid.

Folio 23r, top. On circumcision. From ibid.

Folio 23r, bottom: Homily on Genesis 33:5, ‘Esau saw the women and the children’. From the work Śiaḥ Yitzḥaḳ / שיח יצחק.

Folio 23v: poem for a eulogy.

Folio 24r: ‘Four are obligated to offer Thanks’ (Babylonian Talmud Berakhaot 54b); Homily on Ruth 3:1, ‘Do I not seek a place of repose for you, so that it may be good for you?’. From ibid.

Folios 24v – 25: Eulogy from Sefer Ḥayim / ספר חיים by Rabbi Ḥayim פלאג’י (transliterated Palaji, Palachi, etc.), with glosses by HED.

Folio 26 – 27r: The categories and rules of Muḳtse / מוקצה, items not to be used on the Sabbath.

Folios 27v – mid 30r: Sayings and Expressions, 202 of which are numbered and have source citations from Rabbinic literature. These are followed by non-numbered and mostly non-attributed sayings and longer Torah thoughts and insights – including

Folios mid 30r – 32 & 33v: brief homiletical items by HED and from other sources, including ‘In Praise of the Baal Shem Tov’, Otsar Neḥmad / אוצר נחמד, Ḳorban Shabbat / קרבן שבת, Toledot Adam / תולדות אדם, Ohel Mo‘ed / אהל מועד, and Abraham Ibn Ezra.

Folios 34 – 35: Discussion of fundamental questions (such as: Why be Jewish?) from the work ‘Al Parshat Derakhim / על פרשת דרכים = ‘At the Crossroads’ by the cultural Zionist and journalist Ahad Ha'am (= Asher Zvi Hirsch Ginsberg).

Folio 36r: Where to find various homiletical items in the Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot.

Folio 36v: On the distinction between ‘blessing’ and ‘prosperity’. From the Hasidic master Rabbi Moshe of Lelov, printed at the end of Hasidic homiletical work Liḳuṭe MaHaRaA / לקוטי מהר”א on the Torah.

Folios 37r – mid 38v: Eulogy for the senior sage Chief Rabbi David Papo, delivered in the Great Synagogue of Baghdad.

Folios mid 38v – 40: Sermon for the eulogy for the outstanding sage Rabbi Yosef Ḥayim son of the sage Rabbi Elijah son of the sage Rabbi Moshe (of Baghdad, famous as the author of Ben Ish Ḥay / בן איש חי), prefaced by a paragraph describing the place of Rabbi Yosef Ḥayim’s passing on Monday, 13 Elul 5669 [= 30 August 1909], the body’s arrival two days later in Baghdad, for burial, which took place at midnight, and where he was eulogised by the sage Moses Shamash, the eulogy the next morning, Wednesday, in the Great Synagogue, by the sage David Papo of blessed memory, the eulogy on Thursday by the sage Sassoon Israel, and on Sunday morning by HED.

Flipping the notebook over, and thus moving in reverse order from the foliation: Folios 43v – 41v: Chronology of communal and familial figures and events.

[End]