Obj. ID: 39195
Jewish printed books Divrei ha-Brit, Thessaloniki (Salonika), 1743
This text was prepared by William Gross:
Tikkunim for recitation on the eighth night just before the Brit Milah. This is a custom in many parts of the Jewish world. The praying men in essence keep guard over the boy when he is considered most vulnerable to Lilith on the night before his Milah. During the evening they recite sections from the Jewish canon.
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The history of Hebrew printing in Salonica began in the early 16th and lasted some 400 years, being brought to an end only with the Nazi conquest. The first Hebrew press was established in Salonica in 1512 by a Portuguese printer and émigré, Ibn Gedalya. By the 1560s, with the mass influx of former Marranos from the Iberian Peninsula, printing activity in Salonica reached its height, with more than 120 books published (including a few in Ladino). However, the city had no well-established printing houses until the end of the 17th century except for a short period.
By the mid-18th century, several printing houses which were to enjoy long periods of activity had been founded.
Bezalel Halevi Ashkenazi was one of the foremost Hebrew printers of this period in Salonica and became the scion of a family of printers who remained active until the early 20th century. Bezalel Ashkenazi came to the city from Amsterdam in 1740. He leased and renovated the printing house from the Talmud Torah Society in Salonica, and, between 1740 and his death in 1756, produced more than thirty-five books which are noted for their high printing quality.
This volume was issued by Bezalel’s sons, who continued to operate their father’s press after his death, from 1756 to 1763.
Bezalel’s grandson, Sa’adi Halevi Ashkenazi, established a new printing house in 1792, and another descendant, also called Sa’adi Halevi Ashkenazi (the Second) became the most important Hebrew printer in Salonica in the 19th century.