Hilkhot sheḥiṭah [bediḳah u-ṭerefot].
הלכות שחיטה [בדיקה וטרפות].

Format:

Book

Manuscript

Author/Creator:

Milhaud, Mosheh de.

Contributor:

Monteles, Avraham de, former owner.

Moldovan, Joseph, donor.

Moldovan, Susan, donor.

Moldovan Family Judaica Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

דמונטיליץ, אברהם, בעלים קודמים.

Language:

Hebrew

Subjects (All):

Jews.

France--L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue.

Shehitah.

Jews--Dietary laws.

Jews--France--L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue--18th century.

Comtat Venaissin (France)--History--18th century--Sources.

Comtat Venaissin (France).

Genre:

codices (bound manuscripts)

manuals (instructional materials)

Manuscripts, European.

Penn Provenance:

Formerly owned by Avraham de Monteles (signature, f. i recto); this may have been a relative of the wider de Monteles family, who were authors of other halakhic texts, such as R. Joseph b. Avraham de Monteles (17th century?), who authored Orḥot ḥayim, a ḳitsur based on the Shulḥan ʻarukh Oraḥ ḥayim, preserved in Ets Haim Library Amsterdam Netherlands 47 E 31. This owner inscribes local minhagim and his emendations to the text in multiple places, approximately 1800.

GIFT FROM THE MOLDOVAN FAMILY COLLECTION By Joseph T. Moldovan C'76 and Susan A. Moldovan C'76. Donated in Honor and Memory of Jean and Dr. Alfred Moldovan.

Physical Description:

19 leaves : paper ; 220 x 140 (160 x 100) mm bound to 225 x 155 mm

Production:

Liśloa, 1780.

לישלוא, תק"מ.

Language Note:

Hebrew.

Summary:

This is a manuscript of learning concentrated in the laws of sheḥiṭah (kosher ritual slaughter), bediḳah (the subsequent inspection of deformities), and ṭerefot (permitted and prohibited deformities for slaughtered animals). The purpose of the manuscript may have been a gift in honor of a completion of a semikhah for ritual slaughter, and the colophon suggests that the manuscript was a commissioned project. Notable rulings include that a drunkard (ha-shiḳor) should not perform sheḥiṭah, even if he has not reached the drunkenness level of Lot (f. 5r); this is the Ashkenazic ruling, here preferred by a teacher in Provence with ostensibly Sefardic customs (see R. Mosheh Isserles, ha-Mapah, commentary to Shulḥan ʻarukh Yoreh deʻah 1:8, who rules this way; R. Joseph Karo rules that a semi-drunk may slaughter). Another is that one may not perform sheḥiṭah over a moat (guma) because it is "the custom of heretics" (apiḳorsim; f. 5v); this is a variant of the Talmud Bavli, Ḥulin 41b, which records that being the custom of the Sadducees. Another instance where the writer supports the Ashkenazic ruling against the Sefardim is about the process of finding animals kosher despite certain types of lung adhesions (sirkhot) that do not puncture the lining of the lung, which R. Joseph Karo rules is "feeding ṭerefot to (the people of) Israel...", see ibid., 39:10, and R. Mosheh Isserles' note to ibid., 39:13 permitting it), because "it is the animal of a Jew, and the loss is great... ("hefsed merubah," f. 15v). With later emendations written by R. Abraham de Monteles in his hand, approximately 1800.

Notes:

Ms. codex.

Title from first heading and headings later on in the manuscript (f. 1r; 10r).

Collation: Paper, i + 19 + i; 1⁷ (+7) 2-3⁶, 1 leaf; modern foliation in pencil, lower left recto, 1-19.

Layout: Written in 16 long lines ruled in hardpoint; single indents follow each heading, while the final word for the preceding paragraph finishes without a period, as if in a open dialogue style.

Script: Written in a square script more typical of Italy in the hand of Mosheh de Milhaud; he was clearly quite expert at fine writing.

Binding: Limp parchment wrappers, likely original.

Origin: Written in L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue by Mosheh de Milhaud on behalf of the bachelor Eliyahu ben Ya'akov Carmi of Carpentras on 15 Adar I 5540 (Monday, 21 February 1780; colophon f. 18v).

Cited as:

UPenn CAJS Rar Ms 495.

OCLC:

1100423506