Title

Description

Entries written by the Pardo family only appear on images 3,8,30-32,41,43, and 44.

Standard Hebrew prayers recited at circumcisions, which have not been transcribed here [Images 11-15, 17-23].

The ledger was acquired by the bookdealer Menaḥem Lifshits of Paris in the fall of 1897 from the estate of Rabbi Jacob Pardo, an 18^th-century rabbi, author, and poet. Though Rabbi Pardo served as the rabbi in Raguza (now Dubrovnik) and then Split, Croatia, this ledger makes no mention of Split. [Images 8, 44]

Prayers recited during the circumcision ceremony. [Images 9–21]

There are 18 entries recorded, including births of boys and girls and circumcisions performed by members of the family of Rabbi Jacob Pardo.

The earliest inscriptions, inscribed towards the end of the ledger, were apparently written by Rabbi Jacob, son of Rabbi David Pardo. On one page he records the birth of his son David Shmuel and that of his daughter Byetka (ביעטקא). [Image 41]

On another page he records a number of circumcisions he performed over the years: the year of the first and earliest entry is unclear; the second entry is dated 1761; and the final entry is dated 1791. He mentions two circumcisions that he performed upon his return from traveling to print his father’s book Ḥasdei David, which was published in Livorno in 1778. One of those circumcisions was performed in nearby Turani (Gornji Turani) on his nephew, the son of his sister Nisniti who was married to Shlomoh Musafa. [Image 43]

The inscriptions at the beginning of the ledger, apparently in a different handwriting, begin with the recording of the writer’s first performance of a circumcision on 23 Adar I, 5575 (March 5, 1815). This is followed by the entry for circumcision of the writer’s nephew (the son of his brother-in-law), and the circumcision of his own son Jacob who was circumcised on the lap of his father, who is described as “The crown of my head.” He further mentions that his mother served as the sandeket (a term which is mentioned elsewhere in the manuscript):

On the eve of the 10^th of Tevet in the year 5578 two hours past midnight my wife gave birth to a son who I circumcised on the eighth day following his birth. The sandek was my master, my father, the crown of my head and [the sandeket was] my mother, may she be blessed. We named the child Jacob, and may the G‑d of Jacob assist him. May he be similar to my master my father … and may we merit to see him to become a rabbinical authority. [Image 29]

This same unidentified writer records the birth of his son Yitsḥak on September 8, 1824 and the birth of his daughter Belina in 1820. He mentions a halakhic dispute he had with some other mohalim regarding the circumcision of a child who was born partially circumcised. [Image 30]

The same circumciser records the birth of a number of his grandchildren in 1856 (in Verona), 1855, and 1857. [Image 31]

Eight entries apparently written by a son of Rabbi Jacob Pardo. [Image 29-31]

A product of a cooperation agreement between the Russian National Library and Touro University’s Project Zikaron in 2019. This pinkas is part of the Günzburg Manuscript Collection at the Russian National Library in Moscow. This overview and the accompanying annotated transcription were made by Rabbi Yitzchok Stroh of Brooklyn, New York, in 2022.

Category

Year of Publication/Creation

c. 1761–1857

Language(s)

Hebrew

Geographic Places

• Dubrovnik (Ragusa, Raguza), Croatia (read online)
• Verona 1, Italy (image 31)
• Turani, Bosnia-Herzegovina (image 43)