PSALMS WITH THE METSUDAT DAVID (FORTRESS OF DAVID) AND METSUDAT TSIYYON (FORTRESS OF ZION) COMMENTARIES OF RABBIS DAVID AND JEHIEL HILLEL ALTSCHULER, SLAVUTA: RABBI MOSES SHAPIRO, 1822

The recitation of the book of Psalms carries great spiritual significance in Jewish, particularly Hasidic, tradition. Many Hebrew psalters are divided into seven and/or thirty parts so that a supplicant can complete the entire book every week or month. The Shapiro printing office in Slavuta issued numerous editions of Psalms beginning in 1820, often accompanied by special prayers to be said on weekdays, Sabbaths, and festivals in conjunction with the reading of the psalms themselves. The present lot is a copy of one of two versions of Psalms printed by the Shapiros in 1822. This one features two commentaries by the eighteenth-century father-son team Rabbis David and Jehiel Hillel Altschuler, entitled Metsudat david and Metsudat tsiyyon (first edition of the Psalms commentaries: Zolkiew, 1753). The former elucidates the meaning of the text as a whole, while the latter focuses on explaining individual words. The second version of Psalms published that year was accompanied by a commentary taken from the Sha‘ar ha-shamayim prayer book printed in Amsterdam in 1717 (see lot 90).