Solomon Adeni, Melekhet Shelomo ("the commentaries on the Mishnah by Solomon")
Description
Shelomo bar Joshua Adeni (1567-1625) was a Jewish scholar who
devoted himself primarily to the study of the Mishnah (the first
major written redaction of the Oral Torah). According to tradition,
he spent three decades working on his commentary, writing his own
thoughts and remarks in the margins next to and around the text of
his printed edition of the complete Mishnah. His notes became so
crowded that he himself had difficulty deciphering them, whereupon
a patron enabled him to rewrite his collection of thoughts into a
coherent work; the result is this Mishnah commentary. The Mishnah
consists of six orders; this text is a commentary on the first
part, the Zera’im ("Seeds"), pertaining to blessings, prayers and
laws related to agriculture. The Library of the Jewish Theological
Seminary in New York holds a corresponding commentary on the sixth
order of the Mishnah, the Tohorot ("Purities") (MS Rab33). It is
dated 1611, so we can assume that our manuscript was written
earlier.
