Obj. ID: 35959
Jewish printed books  Menorat ha-Meor by Yitzhak Aboab, Frankfurt am Main, 1687

This text was prepared by William Gross:

This printed book is an ethical treatise, one of the most popular such writings in Jewish history. It was designed as an intorduction for the Marrano returnees to Judaism. Isaac Aboab (Spain, end 14th century) was a Jewish Talmudic scholar. He was also known by the pen name Menorat ha-Maor or Menoras HaMaor, after the present work. As shown by Zunz ("Ritus," pp. 204–210), he is not to be confused with Isaac Aboab, rabbi of Castile, the supercommentator of Naḥmanides, who died in 1493.
Isaac Aboab was a man of affairs, who, towards the end of his life, devoted much time to literary work and to preaching, as he found that great Talmudic scholars and important seats of learning were rare. In his time, the Jews for whom he wrote still understood and spoke Arabic. He belonged to a period of intellectual decline when men took naturally to eclecticism. He combined extensive rabbinical knowledge with philosophical erudition, and was fond of mystic interpretation of the Mosaic laws and ceremonies. He quoted Aristotle and Plato, though only from secondary sources, and endeavored to illustrate passages from the Talmud and the midrashic literature, with which he was especially familiar, by utterances taken from the philosophical, the ethical, and the mystic literature of his time. His chief aim was the popularization of knowledge and the elevation of the masses.
The engraved title page may be the inspiration for the title page of the Amsterdam Haggadah.
The introduction is misplaced at back, with an illustration of the spies returning with grapes on the last page. This image was taken from a Tze'ena u-Re'ena book. The same edition was printed without the copper engraving as well (see GFC B.1693).