Sefer Yefeh To’ar on Vayikra Raba—Williamdorf, 1714. The largest and most comprehensive work on Midrash Raba. Rare.

Sefer Yefeh To’ar on Vayikra Raba—Williamdorf, 1714. The largest and most comprehensive work on Midrash Raba. Rare.

This book is a comprehensive commentary and most important to the Midrash, written by Rabbi Shmuel Yafeh Ashkenazi over 25 years. His interpretation merited to be published across the Jewish people. Introduction by the author’s son. [2], 132 leaves. National Library has it in the Rare Books section. Title page features a beautiful engraved illustration of Moses and Aaron and angels. New binding, stains, title page and other pages have been professionally repaired, moth holes and damage, tear in the margins of the 13th leaf with damage in the margins of the text, overall fair to good condition for a book of this age.

The greatest members of all ages in the Diaspora and in Israel often learned it and reference it in their books frequently and established their interpretation in the comments.

Rabbi Shmuel Yafeh Ashkenazi (1525-1595), a sage of the Ottoman empire in the 16th century, worked on it over 25 years. The researcher Meir Benayahu writes that this book has probably been printed more than any other book in the history of printing, from the invention of the printing press to the present. The present copy is from the third and final edition, the last edition printed until today. This copy is from the 3rd (final) edition, which hasn’t been printed since. The title page has an antique and unclear signature: “Chanan d’ Avdo…the holy Yaakov…of Furth”.