Sefer ha-hayim

Sefer ha-Hayyim ("the Book of Life") is a book of Jewish ethics. It was written by Hayyim ben Bezalel (Poland, c. 1520-1588). Hayyim ben Bezalel studied with Shalom Shachna and Solomon Luria (the Maharshal). He succeeded his uncle, Jacob ben Chaim, as chief rabbi of Worms and later left to assume the rabbinate at Friedberg (near Frankfurt).

Hayyim ben Bezalel's younger brother was Judah Loew ben Bezalel (known as the Maharal, the Hebrew acronym of "Moreinu Ha-Rav Loew," or "Our teacher, Rabbi Loew").  Rabbi Judah Loew was an important Talmudic scholar, Jewish mystic, and philosopher who, for most of his life, served as a leading rabbi in the cities of Mikulov in Moravia and Prague in Bohemia. The Maharal is also the subject of a nineteenth-century legend that he created the Golem of Prague, an animate being fashioned from clay.

This copy of Sefer ha-Hayim was published in Lvov in 1804 by "Jides," i.e. Judith (Yehudit) Rosanes, one of the first Hebrew women printers. The front enpapers have various Hebrew inscriptions, including the signaure of "Yehudah Sagal Horṿiṭts," whose family was possibly from Hermanshṭaṭ (i.e. Sibiu, Romania).

Signature:

הן פה יהודה סגל הארוויטך

Eisenberg, Ronald L. Essential Figures in Jewish Scholarship. 2014. Print.

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