Toftè Gnarùch, ossia, Il castigo dei reprobi : poema ebraico del secolo XVII
(Toftè 'arukh: the punishment of the damned: Hebrew poem of the seventeenth century)
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Title
(Toftè 'arukh: the punishment of the damned: Hebrew poem of the seventeenth century)
Subject
Description
Toftè 'arukh was written by Moses ben Mordechai Zacuto (1625-1697), a rabbi, Kabbalist, and poet who lived in Amsterdam. Originally published in Hebrew in 1715, Tofte 'arukh is a play depicting the circles of hell.
This version was translated to Italian by Cesare Foa and was published in 1901. On the cover page is an Italian inscription from Foa to Isaac Rafael Tedeschi (1826-1908), who was the first rabbi of the Jewish community of Bologna after its reestablishment in 1860.
On the last page, there is a copy of the inscription on Moshe Zacut's tombstone. It was customary for Italian Jewish tombstones during the Renaissance to contain distinct and diverse literary and architectural features.
מצבת קבורת הרב הגדול שברבנים
המקובל החסיד והקדוש מרנא ורבנא
משה זכות זצוק"ל אשר נסע למנוחה
ויעזוב אותנו לאנחה יום ב' של סכות הת"נח
***
העוברים עמדו ואל תפרעו
שימו לבבכם אל קבורת גבר גבר
בעול על כל אשר נודעו
בסוד ובנגלה ומשביר שבר
כל שומעיו ישתעשעו ישבעו
על כל שפתיו דובבות בדבר
עומד כמו משה דעת הדחק
לנו זכותו יעמוד בשחק
Rough translation:
The burial monument of the great rabbi of rabbis
The pious and saintly mystic our teacher and master
Moshe Zacut, the memory of the holy and righteous be a blessing, who went to rest
And left us to repose on the second day of Sukkot 1697
* * *
The passersby may stop and don’t uncover [your heads ?]
Direct your attention to the tomb of a man
Who overcame with strength everything known
In the hidden and in the revealed [realms] and gives sustenance [?]
All those who heard him took delight and swore
Therefore his lips are [still] murmuring in the tomb
He stands like Moses in time of distress
For us his merit may achieve [reward] in heaven
Creator
Foà, Cesare, 1833-1907, translator
Source
David Malkiel (2013). Renaissance in the Graveyard: The Hebrew Tombstones of
Padua and Ashkenazic Acculturation in Sixteenth-Century Italy . AJS Review, 37,
pp 333-370 doi:10.1017/S0364009413000299
https://books.google.com/books?id=XynoBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA280&lpg=PA280&dq=moshe+zacuto+epitaph&source=bl&ots=uzsP-0zyvL&sig=53YH74ectnP-AATRVE-6qhGZIl8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCQQ6AEwAWoVChMI3oaanZG2xwIVkBqSCh0UfAsr#v=onepage&q=moshe%20zacuto%20epitaph&f=false
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bri_ins_toftegnaruch_unknown_2026_0001.jpg
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