JOSEPH EZEKIEL RAJPURKAR’S PRAYERS OF THE THREE GREAT JEWISH FESTIVALS, 1901 FIRST EDITION, PRINTED IN BOMBAY

(INDIAN JUDAICA—BOMBAY IMPRINT) [RAJPURKAR], Joseph Ezekiel. Mo’adim. The Prayers of the Three Great Jewish Festivals. Translated (with Explanatory Notes) by Joseph Ezekiel. Bombay: Javaji Dadaji’s “Nirnaya-sagar” Press, 1901. Small octavo, later half red cloth and patterned boards, recent endpapers. Housed in custom leather folder. $1200.

First edition of this Bombay-printed liturgy, translated into Marathi by Joseph Ezekiel Rajpurkar, one of the leading Jewish scholars of 19th-century Bombay.

Rajpurkar (1834-1905), scholar of the Bene Israel community in Bombay, was headmaster of the David Sassoon Benevolent Institution for 40 years. A master of Hebrew as well as of Marathi, the vernacular of Bombay, he translated over 20 works of the Hebrew liturgy and many English works of Jewish interest into Marathi, as with the present liturgical text. Yaari Bombay 129. Owner signature to title page.

Title page reinforced along inner margin; one leaf of text with extensive early cellophane tape repairs, which have affected the two neighboring leaves as well (closed tears). A very good copy.