Page:Sefer ha-Yashar or the book of Jasher (1840).djvu/32

XXII from without, and within was the terror of pestilence and famine, on account of the battles and contentions which took place between the sons of the old king Maruccus who had died, for each lifted himself up, saying, I will reign, and they devoured the Israelites with open mouth, so that very few remained of them, even a tithe of a tithe; many families and heads of the houses of their fathers were lost and destroyed and became as naught; many books of various kinds, new and old, some in manuscript and others in print, as well as those of modern times, were mostly destroyed by fire, or were torn to pieces, which, together with their owners, lie hid under the ruins to this day. Woe to the eyes that beheld this! yet may the name of the Lord be blessed for the evil as well as for the good.

Fearing that this book might share the same fate as the others, I daily used the most persevering exertions in sending letters to some particular individuals in the city Argilia, in the city Titu, and in the city Pasia, to such as had been left, humbly beseeching them to search and inquire where might be the place of the glory of this book, and it was sought after and found to be hid in the hands of one of the individuals of the congregation, the wise and highly gifted Moses Chasan; and thanks are due to him, that upon his ascertaining my good intention to print it and to scatter it throughout all Jewish communities, he did not delay to send it, as he felt a desire for a heavenly reward for this pious act, yea, he sent it to me as a gift, may he receive a blessing from the Lord, and may his reward be perfect. Amen.

Now I in my humble station have composed a work entitled in two parts, one part containing some of the scriptural comments which I made with the gracious help of the Lord, and the second part containing fifty lectures which I delivered to a great congregation, besides a later comment containing explanations of parts of the Talmud which I met with in the course of my studies, and which I illustrated according to my humble abilities; now I am revising this work a second time in order to bring it to the press, if heaven spare my life, yet I said to my heart, to thee, O worm, and no man, does the scripture proclaim “It is time for thee, O Lord, to work, for they have made void thy law,” for the printing of this book of Jasher tends to the honor and glory of the Lord, for through it will the hearts of men be directed to cleave to the blessed Lord, and by the means of which they will understand the wonderful works of God, and his bounties toward our ancestors from the days of old, and how he chose us from all nations, as thou wilt see at length in the preface, wherein thou wilt perceive enumerated the great many uses, thirteen in number, which induce men to confide in the Lord and to adhere to him.

I have also found another use therein, which is, that many parts of the five books difficult of comprehension, and which the commentators have been unable to reconcile, are, by means of this book, properly understood, because it gives a detail of those parts, wherein the sacred volume is brief in its account, and relates events as they occurred; thou wilt therefore find me lifting up my hand in the margin with the words “The humble editor say's,” by which will be understood what I have