Auction 109 Books | Letters and Manuscripts | Megillot and Jewish Ceremonial Art
Aleh Terufah – London, 1785 – Halachic Responsa on Smallpox Vaccine – Rare
Opening: $300
Sold for: $1,250
Including buyer's premium
Aleh Terufah, halachic responsum permitting use of the smallpox vaccine, with novellae on the first chapter of Mishnah Tractate Berachot, and an aggadic homily on Tractate Niddah, by R. Avraham Nansich-Hamburger. London: Alexander son of Yehudah and his son Yehudah Leib son of Alexander, [1785].
At the beginning of the book is an introduction by the author, detailing his wanderings between the communities of Nancy, the Hague and London, and the background to his work. The author writes that his daughter died of smallpox while he was still residing in Nancy. In the Hague he fell ill to a large outbreak of smallpox, and many Jews were uncertain whether the vaccine was halachically permitted, leading the author to write a halachic responsum which he vowed to publish after the author's son died in another outbreak ten years later.
The author also mentions his friend, the kabbalist R. Shalom Buzaglo, author of Mikdash Melech, who describes a similar folk remedy prevalent in Morocco: women would place raisins on the hand of a child who had fallen ill with smallpox, then place them on the hands of a healthy child, the idea appearing to be exposing the body to a weaker form of the virus as a natural vaccine.
[2], 7, [14] leaves. Approx. 19 cm. Good condition. Light stains. Early cardboard binding, with defects (tears to edge of spine).
Bookplate of Mozes Heiman Gans.
English Jewry and Americana
English Jewry and Americana