"A lamb for each father's house"

The title of this post is taken from Shemot (Exodus) 12:2, being the English translation of the words שה לבית אבות which form part of this coming Shabbat’s Torah reading. It is also, with a minor adjustment, the title of a book that has just come into my possession: ש”ה לבית אבות (S”H Lebet Avot).

The author of this book is Rabbi Shalom Hedaya (hence the initials ש”ה/S”H) and it is a fairly lengthy small-print work on Pirkei Avot. Published in Jerusalem in 1986, it is unusual for several reasons.

• First, the text of each Mishnah and Baraita is accompanied by hashe’elot (“the questions”) as well as a bi’ur (“explanation”).
• Secondly, this book does not appear on any of the lists of his writings that accompany his online biographies.
• Thirdly, it contains a portrait photograph of the author which shows him holding a cane in his right hand; the identical photograph appears elsewhere in reverse, with him holding the cane in his left hand (see illustrations below). Since R’ Hedaya was a mystic, I wonder whether this has any kabbalistic significance.

I found this book in a pile of discarded publications that one of the synagogues had left out in the open air, next to the Nachlaot shemot bin. Judging by its condition it has been read many times. IHad I not rescued it, last night’s rains would have ruined it.

Do any readers know of this work? I have never seen anyone make any reference to it. This may be because, like many late twentieth century commentaries on Avot, it only had a small print run and never reached a readership beyond the Rabbi’s friends and flock. It may also be because of its content. Rabbi Hedaya was not merely a scholar and a dayan: he was also a Kabbalist. If this commentary is rich in Kabbalah, it may inaccessible or at least hard-to-comprehend for those of us whose contact with Kabbalah has been brief or cursory.

I’m going to have a go at reading this commentary and will report on what I find. Meanwhile, if any reader can tell me more about the book and its illustrious author, I shall be very grateful.

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