Fundamental Sefer on Astronomy: Yeshua B’Yisrael on the Constellations. Frankfurt 1720, First Edition, Astronomical ...

Fundamental Sefer on Astronomy: Yeshua B’Yisrael on the Constellations. Frankfurt 1720, First Edition, Astronomical Diagrams.

Explanation of the Rambam’s laws of Hilchos Kiddush Hachodesh by Rabbi Yehonasan Ruzhinai, the premier commentator on laws of Kiddush Hachodesh.

Frankfurt am Main, 1720. First Edition.

This work contains dozens of astronomical and geometrical drawings. Title page with four woodcut illustrations of Moshe, Aharon, Dovid and Yehonasan. 

In his approbation to a recent new edition of this sefer, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky zt”l attested that the Chazon Ish used this sefer when studying the laws of Kiddush Hachodesh.

That very same year, in 1720, the legendary Masores HaShas Edition of Talmud was printed in Frankfurt with Rabbi Yehonasan Ruzhinai’s drawing of the Beis Hamikdash. This illustration has since been printed in the majority of editions of Mishnah and Talmud.

 [4], 58 leaves. Page  31.4 cm

Fair condition, marginal wear to title page, stains, marginal tears, detached pages, original leather binding rubbed & damaged.

The author, Rabbi Yonatan of Różana was a gadol of his generation, served in the rabbinate of Grodno. In 1710 a plague broke out in his city, and for a whole year he lived in a sukkah in a field outside the city with his whole family. He swore that if he survived the plague, he would write a sefer on the subject, and after he survived he wrote this sefer, whose name hints at what happened. To print the sefer he came to Frankfurt in 1720. In the introduction he writes that “hardships that have visited his city and state, a plague and the sword, and a few years have passed with things that have stopped him from fulfilling his vow.”