Sefer Yesod from Era of Rishonim: Sefer Ra’avan.
First edition. Prague, 1610.
Sefer Ra’avan containing teshuvos, halachic rulings, and explanations on various masechtos of the Talmud Bavli.
It was authored by one of the great Rishonim, Rabbi Eliezer son of Nosson of Mainz, a leading Rosh Yeshiva in Germany and France, and one of the earliest Baalei Tosafos.
This is one of the Sifrei Yesod of Torah from the Rishonim of France and Germany and includes many teachings from his contemporaries and earlier generations, along with important textual variants.
On the verso of the title page there is a rare haskamah from the leading sages of the time: the Maharsha; Rabbi Mordechai Yaffe (author of the Levushim); Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim Luntschitz (author of the Kli Yakar); Rabbi Yitzchak Katz (son-in-law of the Maharal of Prague); and others.
The author,
Rabbi Eliezer bar Nosson, known as the Ra’avan (d. 1170), was a towering Torah figure of the Rishonim era and among the earliest Baalei Tosafos. He maintained correspondence with the Gaon Rabbi Meir bar Shmuel (son-in-law of Rashi), and with his sons, the Rashbam and Rabbeinu Tam. One of his sons-in-law was Rabbeinu Yoel HaLevi of Bonn, one of the Baalei Tosafos and the father of the Ra’aviyah.
The Chida, in his sefer ‘Shem HaGedolim, ’ devotes a long entry to the Ra’avan, and quotes the Yad David as saying: “In his sefer you will find everything the Tosafos [on Maseches Shabbos] attribute to R’ Eliezer.”
Prague, 1610. First edition. Printed by Rabbi Moshe Katz Mechokek, with the printer’s emblem on the title page.
Page Count: 134 leaves.
Condition: Good; repair to margins of the back of the title page. Some stains. Old binding.
Bibliography: Stefansky, Sifrei Yesod, no. 225.
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The sefer was titled ‘Even Ha’ezer’ by the author, and this name appears prominently on the title page. However, for centuries the sefer has been universally known throughout Klal Yisrael as “Ra’avan”, an acronym of the author’s name.
