Description
Rabbi Shalom Shabazi, also known as Abba Shalom Shabazi, lived and worked in southern Yemen in the 17th century. His poetry earned a central place in the cultural life of all Yemenite Jews, and gave Rabbi Shabazi a special status among Yemenite sages and commoners alike; like Rabbi Yehuda Halevi to the Jews of Spain, so Rabbi Shalom Shabazi was to the Yemenite Jews
In this book, a manuscript that has been held privately is published for the first time and contains 22 new piyyutim written in the handwriting of Rabbi Shabazi. The book encompasses prayer passages from around the year: Passover, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot and Simchat Torah. The study of the Passover Haggadah and the prayer passages revealed that until the second half of the 17th century, the time of Rabbi Shabazi, all Yemenite Jewry knew one version and one custom, except for a few differences between communities. This manuscript is in the handwriting of the great poet, and the discussion of them constitutes an important contribution in the study of the poetry of Rash Shabazi and in the wording of the prayer in its place and time. The book also includes a comprehensive chapter on Rabbi Shalom Shabazi, his life and work, and another chapter on the tradition of ascending to his grave.