Or 17062

One of Hakham Ezra Reuben Dangoor's (HED's) notebooks containing a compilation of sermons, homilies, biblical-Hebrew word studies, studies of biblical passages and verses, ethical fables and poems, reflections on the soul, etc., all in the spirit of the religious / rabbinic Haskalah, and drawing on their publications, most prominently the periodical Bikkure ha-‘ittim / בכורי העתים, but also others, with an occasional original insight by HED.

Partly obscured on the front cover: ח"ד התרנ"ז היום ר"ח אדר ב ٥۷ = Part Four; 5657 [Anno Mundi], beginning of the month Adar II, '57 [= 1897].

Folios 1 – 6r (= HED pp. 1 – 11): Sermon for Purim

Folio 6v (= HED p. 12): Pericope Lekh Lekha / לך לך, the parting between Abraham and Lot (Genesis 13:9); homiletically related to the relationship between soul and body.

Folios 7 & 8 (= HED pp. 13 – 16): Pericope Ṿa-Yigash / ויגש. ‘I am Joseph your brother; Is my father still alive?!’ (Genesis 45:3), on accountability and responsibility.

Folios 9 – 10r (= HED pp. 17 – 19): Amos 3:3-8 & Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 91a: body, soul, man, God, and personal responsibility.

Folio 10 (= HED pp. 19 – 20): On the beginning of the Book of Ruth.

Folio 10v (= HED p. 20): Phineas and the covenant of peace.

Folios 10v – 11r (= HED pp. 20 – 21): On Pericope Shemini / שמיני. Leviticus 9:7, ‘Moses said to Aaron: Approach the altar and carry out your sin offering …’ Rashi’s comment: Aaron was ashamed.

Folio 11r (= HED p. 21): On Jeremiah 2:26, ‘As the shame of a thief, so will the house of Israel be ashamed …’

‘Thus far from the work Peri Hayim (Ḥayim) / פרי חיים, sermons’

Folios 11v – 15r (= HED pp. 22 – 29): Sermon for a Bar Mitsvah, from the periodical Bikure ha-‘itim / בכורי העתים, year 5588 [Anno Mundi = 1827/8 CE], citing Numbers 6:11, ‘He shall make atonement for him, for his having sinned regarding the soul’, and [Babylonian Talmud] Sanhedrin chapter 4 [folio 59b], on the fall of the primordial snake.

Folio 15v (= HED p. 30): 5-point meditation on ‘What are we, and what is our life?’

Folios 15v – 16r (= HED pp. 30 – 31): ‘On the Cheapskate’ / על איש כילי, from Mishle Musar / משלי מוסר, followed by an 18-point meditation on balance.

Folio 16r (= HED p. 31): Word Study: Difference between the Hebrew roots TKN and TḲN / תכן תקן, from Bikure ha-‘itim / בכורי העתים, year 5585 [Anno Mundi = 1825/6 CE].

Folios 16v – 17r (= HED pp. 32 – 33): Ethical tale: ‘The shepherd and the Philosopher’, from ibid. 5582 Anno Mundi.

Folio 17r (= HED p. 33): ‘Success’, from ibid. 5588 Anno Mundi.

Folios 17r – 18r (= HED pp. 33 – 35): Word Studies: [1] Difference between two forms of the word for “together”: יחד and יחדיו, from ibid. 5589 Anno Mundi.

[2] Difference between words for “crown”: עטרה, כתר, נזר.

[3] Difference between words for “stick / staff”: מטה, שבט.

[4] Difference between words for “ground”, ארץ, אדמה; and for “cloud”, עיד, נשיאים, עב, ענן.

Folio 18 (= HED pp. 35 – 36): Torah study, even if not for the right reason, will bring one to study for the right reason.

Folio 18v (= HED p. 36): ‘The Dream’, on preoccupation with ephemeral existence.

Folio 18v (= HED p. 36): ‘He Who Becomes Rich Through Charging Interest’ - poem.

Folios 19 – 20 (= HED pp. 37 – 40): Bar Mitsvah sermon for a superlative young man, including a homily on the Creation story and human nature, from ibid. 5588 Anno Mundi.

Folio 21r (= HED p. 41): ‘The Donkey and its Three Owners’, from ibid.

Folio 21r (= HED p. 41): Word Study: Difference between words for “spying”: תר, מרגל, from ibid. 5586 Anno Mundi.

Folios 21v – 24v (= HED pp. 42 – 48): Word Study: Usages of the Hebrew root Y-R-’Alef / ירא = ‘to fear’, by Samuel David Luzzatto (Shadal), from ibid. 5586 Anno Mundi.

Folio 24v (= HED, p. 48): Short pieces on meaningful life: ‘The days of man, which he lives’; ‘Eternal Wealth’; the way of fools.

Folios 25 – 35r (= HED pp. 49 – 69): From the introduction to the work Ḥazon la-mo‘ed / חזון למועד, on intellectualism, intellectual honesty, and the truth of the Torah.

Folios 35r – 36v (= HED pp. 69 – 72): Samuel David Luzzatto (Shadal) on Isaiah 64, from Bikure ha-‘itim / בכורי העתים, year 5589 Anno Mundi.

Folios 36v – 37 (= HED pp. 72 – 74): Word Study: Difference between words for “meeting”: פגש, פגע.

Folios 37v – 40 (= HED pp. 74 – 80): Word Studies by Samuel David Luzzatto (Shadal), from Bikure ha-‘itim / בכורי העתים, year 5589 Anno Mundi:

[1] Difference in usage between two prepositions: K / כ, and B / ב;

[2] The word ’im / אם;

[3] ‘Use of the future tense as an indication of possibility’;

[4] ‘Feminine marker [suffixed] to a noun: sometimes ה; and sometimes תיו’;

[5] ‘The potency of the cantillation note “shalshelet” / שלשלת’.

Folio 41r (= HED p. 81): Pericope Ṿa-Yera / וירא: In the biblical account of the Binding of Isaac (Genesis chapter 22), what was Abraham’s response (verse 8) to Isaac’s query (verse 7) ‘Where is the sheep to offer up?’, from the work Diver ha-ta‘anugim / דברי התענוגים, Pericope Ṿa-Yera / וירא, with the work ‘Oneg Nefesh / עונג נפש.

Folio 41r (= HED p. 81): Word Study: relation of meaning of Hebrew root P-’Alef-R / פאר to the meaning of the Hebrew root GDL / גדל, from Bikkure ha-‘ittim / בכורי העתים, year 5581 Anno Mundi.

Folio 41v (= HED p. 82): Poem: Calling to God from the narrow straits, from ibid. 5582 Anno Mundi.

Folios 41v – 44v (= HED pp. 82 – 88): Study of the Book of Job 19:23-29, drawing from Bikkure ha-‘ittim / בכורי העתים, year 5583 Anno Mundi, writings by Joel ‘Bril’ [acrostic for Ben Reb Yehuda Leib] Löwe, and Naphtali Hirz (Hartwig) Wessely.

Folios 44v – 46r (= HED pp. 88 – 91): ‘All that the Merciful One does is done for the good’, from Bikure ha-‘itim / בכורי העתים, year 5583 Anno Mundi.

Folio 46r (= HED p. 91): ‘Good Advice’, from ibid.

Folio 46r (= HED p. 91): Six ‘Sayings of Wisdom and Ethics’, from ibid.

Folios 46v – 48r (= HED pp. 92 – 95): Subtle distinctions between synonyms, including background discussion by Shadal (Samuel David Luzzatto), original input by HED, a study of synonyms meaning “causing death”, המית and מותת, by YaShaR (Isacco Samuele Reggio, 1784-1855), and synonyms for “stoning”, סקל and רגם. Collected from Bikkure ha-‘ittim / בכורי העתים, year 5586 Anno Mundi.

Folio 48r (= HED p. 95): ‘A meditation’: helping others will eventually help oneself.

Folio 48r (= HED p. 95): ‘The Hope’, on the soul’s descent to fulfil a divine mission (Hebrew title: ‘Hatikvah’ / התקוה, not to be confused with the Israeli national anthem, by the same name), from ibid.

Folio 48v (= HED p. 96): Three wise parables from ibid.: ‘The Ship’; ‘The Sick, Elderly Lion’; and ‘The Ass in the Lion’s Skin’ accompanied by a rhymed couplet.

Folios 48v – 49r (= HED pp. 96 – 97): Analysis of Rabbenu Baḥya’s discussion of ‘He shall surely heal him’, Exodus 21:19, from ibid., 5588 Anno Mundi.

Folios 49v – 50r (= HED pp. 98 – 99): Study of Isaiah 40:15-17, from ibid., 5589 Anno Mundi.

Folio 50 (= HED pp. 99 – 100): Riddle (כל התורה באותיות אהוי, אמון, קבועים ...) and solution, from ibid.

Folios 50v – 53r (= HED pp. 100 – 105): Study of the Book of Job chapter 31, from ibid.

Folio 53r (= HED p. 105): Word Study: similar words for “I”: אני and אנכי; and similar words for “we”: אנחנו and נחנו. From ibid.

Folio 53 (= HED pp. 105 – 106): On Psalm 72:5b, ‘before the moon, from generation to generation’, ibid., 5589 Anno Mundi.

Folio 53v (= HED p. 106): Additional insight on under which circumstances to negate the grammatical rule of daḥiḳ / דחיק = ‘squeezed’, viz. doubling the letter that begins the second word in a word-pair; and whether it can apply in the case of ’ate marḥiḳ / אתי מרחיק = letters of distance. [See MS Or 17059 (3).]

[End of surviving folios]