e-codices · 15.01.2015, 15:25:08

In biblical times Rosh Hodesh, the first day of the lunar month, was a day on which work was not allowed and important events took place. The prohibition against work was lifted in Talmudic times; since then Rosh Hodesh has been considered a minor festival.
At the end of the sixteenth century a custom developed among the mystics of Safed, in the Land of Israel, to fast on the day preceding Rosh Hodesh. A new liturgy was developed, based on penitential prayers for Yom Kippur. This fast was called Yom Kippur Katan, or the Minor Day of Atonement. In the course of the seventeenth century the custom spread to Italy and on to Northern Europe.
Manuscripts for Yom Kippur Katan, in vogue in the eighteenth century, included few illustrations. The Braginsky manuscript has only a baroque architectural title page with depictions of Moses and Aaron. The name of the owner was intended to be added to the empty shield at the top. The city of Pressburg and name of the scribe, Judah Leib ben Meir of Glogau (Silesia, Western Poland), are noted. No other manuscripts by him are known.
The script in this manuscript is similar to that of the famous scribe-artist Aaron Wolf Herlingen of Gewitsch. Moreover, the title page is strongly reminiscent of his works. If Judah Leib’s signature were not present, this manuscript almost certainly would have been attributed to Herlingen. It is possible that Judah Leib bought an illustrated title page from Herlingen that was devoid of text. This would explain the presence of the empty shield and the fact that the title page is bound into the manuscript as a separate leaf. Another explanation may be considered as well. In a 1736 census mention is made of an unknown assistant living in Herlingen’s house in Pressburg (see cat. no. 39). Perhaps Judah Leib was Herlingen’s assistant. If this is true, existing attributions of unsigned works to Herlingen based only on images that appear in the manuscripts should be carefully reconsidered, as this evidence may be insufficient.

From: A Journey through Jewish Worlds. Highlights from the Braginsky collection of Hebrew manuscripts and printed books, hrsg. E. M. Cohen, S. L. Mintz, E. G. L. Schrijver, Amsterdam, 2009, p. 120.

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e-codices · 27.11.2014, 15:52:50

Aaron ben Benjamin Wolf Herlingen was born in Gewitsch, Moravia, around 1700, and worked in Pressburg (now Bratislava), Vienna, and perhaps elsewhere (see cat. no. 47). A 1736 census in Pressburg listing Herlingen as “The Moravian Aaron of Gewitsch, official in the Imperial Library in Vienna: one wife, one assistant, one handmaid,” proves that he held the position of library scribe there.
Today over forty manuscripts signed by Herlingen are extant, while approximately a dozen more are attributed to him. The Braginsky Collection contains one attributed and three signed works; this Haggadah of 1725; a book of Psalms from 1737 (Braginsky Collection 63, not in this catalogue); a sheet with Latin micrography dated 1751 (cat. no. 48); and an unsigned Grace after Meals from 1751 (cat. no. 47).
This Haggadah has sixty painted illustrations and three decorated initial word panels. The title page portrays Moses and Aaron, who flank the arch that frames the title. The scene below, with the three siblings Moses, Aaron, and also Miriam, wearing a pointed hat, combines an image of Miriam’s well with the falling of the manna. The Hebrew text between the panels is from the Babylonian Talmud (Sota 11b); it recounts that the Israelites were delivered from Egypt as a reward for the righteous women who lived in that generation. It is possible that the Haggadah was produced for a woman named Miriam.
On folio 3v the five Talmudic sages of Bene-Berak are shown seated at a table. The text recounts that they discussed the Exodus from Egypt through the night until their students came to tell them that the time for the Morning Prayer had arrived. In the Haggadot from Amsterdam printed in 1695 and 1712 the illustration accompanying this text was modeled after a biblical scene depicting the banquet Joseph gave for his brothers, in which more than five figures are present. The handwritten eighteenth-century copies based on these printed editions usually portray anywhere from six to over a dozen men in this scene. This Haggadah is one of the few exceptions in which only the five sages mentioned in the text are depicted.

From: A Journey through Jewish Worlds. Highlights from the Braginsky collection of Hebrew manuscripts and printed books, hrsg. E. M. Cohen, S. L. Mintz, E. G. L. Schrijver, Amsterdam, 2009, p. 116.

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e-codices · 27.11.2014, 15:52:21

Insgesamt 60 gemalte Illustrationen und drei Zierfelder mit Initialwörtern schmücken dieses Meisterwerk der jüdischen Buchkunst von der Hand Aaron Wolf Herlingens. Die Titelseite zeigt, wie so häufig bei illustrierten hebräischen Handschriften des 18. Jahrhunderts, die Figuren von Moses und Aaron zu beiden Seiten des Titeleintrags. Im unteren Feld wird thematisiert, wie beim Zug der Israeliten durch die Wüste Manna vom Himmel fiel, und zwar im Beisein von Moses, Aaron und – was sehr ungewöhnlich ist – von ihrer Schwester Miriam (mit spitzer Kopfbedeckung). Der über dieser Szene angebrachte hebräische Text stammt aus dem babylonischen Talmud (Sota 11b), nach dem die Israeliten zum Lohn für die Rechtschaffenheit ihrer Frauen aus der ägyptischen Knechtschaft befreit wurden. Wegen der bildlichen Hervorhebung der Miriam liegt die Vermutung nahe, dass diese Haggada für eine Frau dieses Namens angefertigt wurde.
Die Abbildung auf fol. 3v zeigt die fünf Weisen von Bene-Berak, die die ganze Nacht von Pessach zusammensassen und über den Auszug aus Ägypten diskutierten. Den aramäischen bzw. hebräischen, die Sederfeier beschliessenden Liedern Echad mi-jodea («Wer kennt eines?») und Chad gadja («Ein Zicklein») sind jiddische Übersetzungen beigefügt.

Aus: Schöne Seiten. Jüdische Schriftkultur aus der Braginsky Collection, Hrsg. von Emile Schrijver und Falk Wiesemann, Zürich 2011, S. 94.

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A Journey through Jewish Worlds. Highlights from the Braginsky collection of Hebrew manuscripts and printed books, hrsg. E. M. Cohen, S. L. Mintz, E. G. L. Schrijver, Amsterdam, 2009, p. 116-117.

Schöne Seiten. Jüdische Schriftkultur aus der Braginsky Collection, Hrsg. von Emile Schrijver und Falk Wiesemann, Zürich 2011, S. 94-95.