Shulchan Aruch Choshen Mishpat with the elucidation of the Meirat Einayim commentary – Sm”a, by Rabbi Yehoshua Falk Katz, of Kraków and Lvov, Prague. 1614-1615. Scarce first edition – the author’s first sefer ! Incomplete copy.
The author is one of the greatest poskim of all generations, a student of the Ram”a and the Maharasha”l, rabbi and leader of thousands.
The author printed the book Meirat Einayim on Choshen Mishpat first, as he wrote in the preface: “And I began with the Choshen Mishpat which is the subject of Torah and all look to it to rule from it.” He gave the composition to Rabbi Moshe Katz’s printing house in Prague, and as written on the title page, before the printers began their work, he passed away, on 19 Nissan 1614. This is the author’s first work that was printed.
Some time later, the Sha”ch composed the commentary Siftei Cohen on Shulchan Aruch Choshen Mishpat. Beginning in 1691, Sefer Torat Kohanim was printed in Shulchan Aruch Choshen Mishpat with the commentaries of the two kohanim , the Sm”a and the Sha”ch (with other commentaries), and from that time to the present day, Shulchan Aruch Choshen Mishpat has been printed with ‘Torat Kohanim.’
This major work was reprinted in only four years, in the same city.
The complete sefer is extraordinarily rare. This copy is almost fully complete.
Several glosses appear among the leaves of the sefer in an Ashkenazic script, with one gloss in Oriental script. This sefer belonged to the Binyan Tziyon study hall in the Old City of Jerusalem, and the glosses may have been written by Rabbi Zundel Salant.
Stefansky, Sifrei Yessod 160.
[1], 3-321; [1] blank leaf, 20 leaf. Lacking leaf 2 (some of the author’s foreword), completed by photocopy. 31 cm.
Moderate condition. Aging stains and usage marks. Adhesions in the inner margins of the leaves and the outer margins of several leaves. Light tears in the margins of several leaves, mostly without lack, worming perforations (primarily in the inner margins). Some of the paper is brownish, as is common among Prague printers. Tears with lack in the margins of the title page with damage to the border. New fabric binding.