12/03/2023
The restoration of the Sefer Rabbeinu David was challenging as well as satisfying work. Many pages were heavily glued together due to water damage and bleeding ink. It was a pleasure to see the happiness in the owners face when he came to pick it up. He is now able to finally descifer the text! Here is his testimony:
"Some years ago, four of five volumes of a manuscript Judeo-Arabic commentary on the Torah were offered for sale, comprising Beresh*t to Bemidbar and written in hatzi kolmus script - a form of Hebrew cursive script, based on the Rashi alphabet. The title of the commentary, on the title page, is “Sefer Rabbeinu David”, however, the author’s name was not otherwise disclosed. The colophon of each volume discloses that the manuscript was written / copied in Cairo, Egypt in 1869 by Shelomo Abigdor ben David Abigdor. In the absence of any other indicators as to the author’s name, the seller presumed that “Rabbeinu David”, mentioned in the title of the work, was David Abigdor, father of the scribe Shelomo Abigdor, and that the scribe had dutifully copied a commentary by his father. However, as a collector of Egyptian Judaica, who has long held an interest in all aspects of Egyptian Jewry, I believed (and it subsequently transpired to be the fact) that “Rabbeinu David” was none other than Rabbeinu David Hanaggid, grandson of the Rambam (Maimonides). Indeed, in 1901, a relative of mine in Cairo had published, at his own expense, a Judeo-Arabic commentary on Pirqei Avot by Rabbeinu David Hanaggid. It transpires that, a few decades later, Shelomo Abigdor again copied this same manuscript commentary on the Torah.
I was able to purchase the four volumes at a very reasonable - if not cheap - price, given that the seller had not correctly identified who Rabbeinu David was. It was a case of caveat venditor, rather than caveat emptor. Of the four volumes, two were in good to very good condition, whilst two were in very poor condition, having suffered from water damage. Thankfully, at the recommendation of the National Library of Israel, I contacted Timna Elper who did a magnificent job restoring especially the two damaged volumes, beyond anything I thought possible." A. S.
