Or 17095

Or 17095 (1): Sermon for a circumcision, Friday of the week of the Torah portion Mi-ḳets / מקץ, twenty-sixth of the Month of Kisleṿ , second day of Hanukah, 5649 [Anno Mundi = 30 November 1888 CE]. In the Hebrew alphanumeric designation of the year, the letters are rearranged to spell ‘May it rain’: תמט”ר. The epigraph is Psalm 119:162, ‘I rejoice over Your word as one who finds much booty’, which, in the first lemma subsequently quoted by HED, from Babylonian Talmud Shabat 130a, is applied to circumcision. The second lemma, from Babylonian Talmud Nidah, discusses the birth of a baby boy. Then the sermon begins with a topical phrase that forms an acrostic of the Tetragrammaton, ‘Let the faces exult and let the hearts rejoice’ / יגילו הפנים וישמחו הלבבות. The sermon ends with a gloss from the work Mikhteve bene ḳedem / מכתבי בני קדם, p. 107.

Or 17095 (2): Sermon for tefillin [the daily wearing of which begins in preparation for a boy’s bar mitzvah]. Epigraph: Deuteronomy 21:10, beginning of Pericope Ki Tetse / כי תצא: ‘When you go out into battle … the Lord your God will deliver them into your hand’. Lemma: HED cites Sifre [cf. Midrash on Psalms, 1:2]: wearing tefilin substitutes for Torah study.

Or 17095 (3): Sermon for a bridegroom. Opening lemma: Proverbs 18:22, ‘He who has found a wife has found good’ etc.

Or 17095 (4): Sermon for marriage, 5649 [Anno Mundi, month of] Kisleṿ, Sabbath [approximately November 1888 CE]. Epigraph: Psalm 128:3-4, ‘Your wife is like a fruitful grapevine … Behold! Thus shall the man be blessed’; lemma: Babylonian Talmud Yevamot 62b, ‘... any man who does not have a wife dwells without goodness, without joy, without blessing’ etc. The sermon begins with a topical phrase that forms an acrostic of the Tetragrammaton, ‘Let the hearts rejoice and let the faces exult’ / ישמחו הלבבות ויגילו הפנים; and it continues with a discussion of husband and wife as soulmates (cf. Genesis 2:24).

Or 17095 (5) - (28): eulogies.

Or 17095 (5): Synopsis of a sermon delivered in Elul 5660 [Anno Mundi = 1900 CE] by HED for the Yahrzeit (anniversary [of the death]) of his revered teacher Hakham Abdallah Somekh. [The exact date of the sermon is unclear.] Epigraph: Deuteronomy 25:19 – 26:1, ‘Do not forget; and it shall come to pass when you come into the land’ (presumably alluding to the soul’s entry into a spiritual “land”). Lemma: Babylonian Talmud Shabat 152b, on the topic of returning one’s soul in the same state of purity in which one received it, citing Ecclesiastes 12:7, ‘and the spirit returneth’. References the work Divre Shelomoh / דברי שלמה, sermon on Pericope Ki Tavo / כי תבוא (= ‘When you come [into the land]’ [the verse cited above]), folio 25a.

Or 17095 (6): Sermon incorporating a lament for a couple, Suliman and Ḥaṿa (Arabic: Ḥawa): ‘Year upon year have finished and passed. Therefore, I raise a keen for them, lamentation and groaning’ etc., followed by a rhymed lament running the entire first column of the recto. HED relates this to the subsequent sermon, on Exodus 1:1, ‘These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob; each man came with his household’, running the second column of the recto and the entire verso.

Or 17095 (7): Sermon for a eulogy, from the work Shema‘ Ya‘aḳov / שמע יעקב by Rabbi Jacob Al-Gazi / אל גאזי, on Pericope Ṿa-Yeḥi / ויחי, discussing recompense in the here-and-now or in the hereafter.

Or 17095 (8): Folio 1 recto: eulogy in rhyme; Folio 1 verso – 2 verso: eulogy; folio 3 recto: addendum. From Ḳol Ya‘aḳov / קול יעקב.

Or 17095 (9): Rhymed eulogy for a great Rabbi.

Or 17095 (10): Sermon for a eulogy, 13 Siṿan, for the deceased Abraham Ezekiel ????, may his soul be bound in the bundle of life /דרוש להספד יום י”ג סיון על המ’ אברהם יחזקאל ???? תנצב”ה. Epigraph: Numbers 8:2, ‘When you cause the lights to ascend, the seven lights should illuminate towards the front of the face of the menorah’, presumably from the weekly Torah reading, Pericope Be-Ha‘alotekha / בהעלותך, and presumably alluding to the analogy of the soul to a light / lamp (see Proverbs 20:27), and its ascension upon death. Lemma: ‘Whoever sheds tears for an upright person – the Holy Blessed One counts them, and places them in His treasure house’ (Babylonian Talmud Shabat 105b). Followed by rhymed lament.

Or 17095 (11): Sermon for a eulogy, Pericope Mas‘e / מסעי (Numbers 33:1 – 36:13). Epigraph: Numbers 33:2, ‘Moses wrote their goings-out on their journeys, by the word of the Lord; these are their journeys on their goings-out’ (presumably alluding to the soul’s journeys and its going out of this world into the next). Next, HED anticipates a lemma, ‘It is stated in the Midrash’; but a space is left blank with no text. The sermon itself begins with a phrase that forms an acrostic of the Tetragrammaton, ‘The matter is known, and the concept is well known’ / ידוע הדבר ומפורסם הענין. Topic: How does the self / soul attain its fulfilment? In this context, what is the meaning and purpose of life, and of the next stage, death? And what is the role of Torah and its commandments in this attainment? Anecdote of discussion with “enlightened” sceptic who questions HED’s adherence to Torah (beginning on 12 verso).

Or 17095 (12): ‘Sermon for a eulogy, delivered on Sunday, 21st of the month of Av, in the home of the deceased Ezra Sassoon Khazzam / המ’ עזרא ששון כזאם. He, his sons, his brother Aaron and his sons were travelling outside of the city, on a river dinghy / בצנת נהר (בלם), on Wednesday, at eventide, when the dinghy capsized. They drowned in the river, and six died. Ezra, his three sons, his brother Aaron and his son died. May their souls be bound in the bundle of life.’ Epigraph: Deuteronomy 11:26, ‘See! On this day, I put before you a blessing and a curse’ (presumably from the beginning of the weeks Torah Pericope, Re’e / ראה = “see”; and presumably making the point that God dishes out both the good and the bad). Lemma: Midrash Tanḥuma on Deuteronomy Pericope Ṿa-’Etḥanan / ואתחנן (Buber edition section 6; see parallel in Deuteronomy Rabbah Pericope Ṿa-’Etḥanan / ואתחנן), on the theme that once a person’s time to die has come, that cannot be undone. Then follows a rhymed keen. The sermon begins on folio 2, with a phrase that forms an acrostic of the Tetragrammaton, ‘The matter is known, and the concept is well known’ / ידוע הדבר ומפורסם הענין. Topic: to live purposefully, with Torah study, despite the wiles of the evil inclination.

Or 17095 (13): Top of sheet: ‘number 3’. Recto: the death of a saint atones for others. Thus, the point of a eulogy for a saint is not for his sake, but to arouse others to repentance. Verso: invocation of divine initiation of the renewal of hearts.

Or 17095 (14): Beginning with a phrase that forms an acrostic of the Tetragrammaton, ‘The faint feel faint and the eulogisers eulogise’ / ידוו הדוים ויספידו הספדנים, HED provides a rhymed keen for the loss of a saint.

Or 17095 (15): Lemma: Midrash Deuteronomy Rabbah on Pericope Ṿa-’Etḥanan / ואתחנן, section 2:11, where God assures Moses that He will answer the People of Israel when they call upon Him. Followed by rhymed keen.

Or 17095 (16): HED’s reaction to the passing of Rabbi Elijah Ḥiyyun / חיון.

Or 17095 (17): Draft of HED’s condolence letter, including rhymed section, to Rabbi Moshe Ḥayim ha-Levi, upon the passing of the latter’s father. (On verso: scribbled note on reading.)

Or 17095 (18): ‘Completion of the sermon of the sage Rabbi Jacob, which I delivered on the 15th day of [the month of] Ḥeshṿan <5681> [Anno Mundi = Wednesday, 27 October 1920] in the Great Synagogue [of Baghdad], in the morning’. The theme is the death of Eli (I Samuel, chapter 4), and the death of the righteous in general. Thus, the meaning of “the sermon of the sage Rabbi Jacob” is: the sermon for the eulogy for the sage Rabbi Jacob, namely the son of Rabbi Yosef Ḥayyim ben Elijah, known in Baghdad by his acrostic ReYaḤ Tov (lit. ‘pleasing fragrance’), author of Ben Ish Ḥai. This Rabbi Jacob had passed away three days earlier, on 12 Ḥeshṿan 5681. He was a friend of HED, whose transcription of Rabbi Jacob’s animal fable is preserved in manuscript Or 17080 (7), and who delivered a sermon to eulogise his friend.

Or 17095 (19): ‘Sermon that I made for the eulogy of the Sage Abraham Dangoor, whose repose is in Eden, Wednesday, 26 Av; the sermon took place on Tuesday, 2 Elul 5683’ [Anno Mundi = 14 August 1923 CE]. Abraham Dangoor was the head of the Baghdadi rabbinic academy Beit Zilkha. Epigraph: from Deuteronomy 16:20, in the Torah portion Shofeṭim / שופטים (Deuteronomy 16:18 – 21:9), the pericope for the week in which the sermon was delivered, ‘Justice, justice shall you pursue, so that you live and inherit the land’ (presumably an allusion to the deceased’s study and teaching of the Torah, and his resultant eternal reward). Lemma: Rabbinic discussion of living up to a good name, and thus being prepared for death. Followed by rhymed keen, and then, on verso, closing thoughts in rhyme.

Or 17095 (20): Sermon for a eulogy. This text is generic. It has much overlap with the personalised text in Manuscript Or 17095 (12). This has the same epigraph, Deuteronomy 11:26, ‘See! On this day, I put before you a blessing and a curse’; and the same lemma: Midrash Tanḥuma on Deuteronomy Pericope Ṿa-’Etḥanan / ואתחנן (Buber edition section 6; see parallel in Deuteronomy Rabbah Pericope Ṿa-’Etḥanan / ואתחנן), on the theme that once a person’s time to die has come, that cannot be undone. Being generic, this manuscript does not contain a rhymed keen. However, it contains the first and third paragraphs of the sermon given there (see there, folio 2, top half of recto and top half of verso), on the topic of living purposefully, with Torah study, despite the wiles of the evil inclination. Also, the sermon here begins with the same phrase used there, forming an acrostic of the Tetragrammaton: ‘The matter is known, and the concept is well known’ / ידוע הדבר ומפורסם הענין.

Or 17095 (21): Sermon for a eulogy, from Shema‘ Ya‘aḳov / שמע יעקב, on Pericope Toledot / תולדות (in the Book of Genesis), introduced by a lemma from Midrash Lamentations Rabbah 1:37, ‘the passing away of the righteous is more difficult for the Holy Blessed One than …’.

Or 17095 (22): Death of children: theological approaches – e.g. is the death of a child considered to be a death “before his time”? – imbedded in hermeneutics; topical sermon for Pericope Nitsavim / נצבים (in the Book of Deuteronomy), with the epigraph from Deuteronomy 30:11 & 14, ‘For this commandment, which I command you today … for the matter is very close to you in your mouth, and in your heart, to do it’, and the lemma from Midrash Ecclesiastes Rabbah 5:11 (HED cites 5:15), ‘“Sweet is the sleep of the worker” … What is the difference between the death of the elderly and the death of children? …’.

Or 17095 (23): Folio 1: Background document: ‘Sermon for the eulogy of the sage, Rabbi Ezekiel ha-Levi [head of Baghdad’s Jewish court], who passed away on the eve of the holy Sabbath [= Friday night] 7 Kisleṿ [5674 Anno Mundi = night of 5 December 1913 CE]. The sage Rabbi Jacob eulogised him on Sunday, in his presence. On Monday, the sage Moses Shamash eulogised him, while I [HED] did a rhymed’ [sermon / eulogy]. HED then gives his epigraph and lemma. Epigraph: Genesis 35:1, ‘God said to Jacob: arise and ascend to the house of God [Bethel] and dwell there’, from the Torah portion of the new week, Pericope Ṿa-Yishlaḥ / וישלח, reflecting Rabbi Ezekiel’s ascent upon his passing. Lemma: from Midrash Genesis Rabbah 78:1, on the weekly pericope: the daily renewal after a night’s sleep (cf. Lamentations 3:23) gives faith in the resurrection of the dead, and in the redemption of the People of Israel. Folio 2 repeats the epigraph and lemma, followed by the full text of the rhymed keen and sermon, and preceded by the caption, ‘Sermon for the eulogy, Pericope Ṿa-Yishlaḥ / וישלח, for the outstanding judge, head of the court, the sage Rabbi Ezekiel ha-Levi, whose repose is in Eden’.

Or 17095 (24): Eulogy for the honourable, God-fearing, proper, and modest woman, Mrs Rachel, may her soul be bound in the bundle of life, wife of the minister and dignitary [Hebrew: השר והטפסר], his honour our master and rabbi Tsaleḥ Meir, may the Lord preserve him. Week of the Torah portion Ṿa-’Etḥanan / ואתחנן. [Probable identification, by Yaacov Zamir of the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center: Rachel = daughter of the magnate and Torah scholar Ezekiel Joshua Gubbay, and sister of Farha (Flora) Sassoon; Rachel's husband = the magnate Tsaleḥ (Charles Saleh) Meir Sassoon, who ran David Sassoon's Bombay office, and was a justice of the peace in that city. Rachel was born in 1862. She died in 1904 [or 1905], which would be the date of this eulogy.]

Or 17095 (25): Compare Or 17095 (10). Epigraph: Numbers 8:2, ‘When you cause the lights to ascend, the seven lights should illuminate towards the front of the face of the menorah’. Lemma: ‘Whoever sheds tears for an upright person – the Holy Blessed One counts them, and places them in His treasure house’ (Babylonian Talmud Shabat 105b). Followed by rhymed lament.

Or 17095 (26): Lament for (unnamed) mentor, teacher, saint, and leader for over 50 years. It is unclear whether this lament is generic or personalised.

Or 17095 (27): Recto: lament for sudden passing of (unnamed) accomplished Torah scholar, expert at scripture and its wording, leader of communal prayer, understated individual, man of action, etc. Verso: lament for passing of (unnamed) pious woman; lament for passing of (unnamed) only child before his time. It is unclear whether these laments are generic or personalised.

Or 17095 (28): lament for couple, Suliman and Ḥaṿa (Arabic: Ḥawa), named in line 7 of the main text, as in MS Or 17095 (6).

Or 17095 (29): ‘Sermon for the Hakham Rabbi Abraham Hillel, 22 Ṭevet 5680’ [Anno Mundi = 13 January 1920 CE]. This sermon was delivered by HED on the sixth day since Rabbi Abraham Hillel’s passing, on 17 Ṭevet. Rabbi Abraham Hillel was an older colleague of HED, also a student of Rabbi Abdallah Somekh, and served several stints as Chief Rabbi of Baghdad. The sermon explores the concept of death, and the soul’s ability to attain true good.

[End]