Sefer Urim V’Tumim – practical sefer for predicting the future by lot. Anglo Jewish and Vernacular Press, printed by Aharon Ya’akov Shmuel Deucher. Bombay, 1886. An uncommon sefer ; the catalog at the National Library brings a note from the researcher Gershom Scholem that this edition is a precious find!
The sefer opens with an introduction on the lots that were used in the Second Temple, and then a table with the form of the ephod . With a prayer service devised to be used while asking the question. This is followed by 12 tables, the number of the gems on the choshen with 72 different questions for predicting the future. After the questions are tables with letters and their combinations as they are to be used for receiving the answer.
The title page states: “As it is uncommon and many want it, and it has never been printed, it has been printed here for the first time in Bombay.” The printers in faraway Bombay were unaware that this sefer had actually been printed several times.
A. Ya’ari, HaDefus HaIvri B’Bombay 38.
16, 72 pp. 21 cm.
Fine condition. Owner’s notations. Aging stains. Professional restoration to the margins of the title page and the margins of several additional leaves, with minor damage to the text. New binding.