Moses Ibn Tsur

Moses Ibn Tsur lived in Fez in the early eighteenth century. He was descended from Spanish Jews who fled the Iberian Peninsula in 1492. He finished writing his introduction to his collection of liturgical poetry, Tsiltsele shama‘ (Resounding Cymbals), in 1712, although the work was not printed until the end of the nineteenth century. This collection contains poems for festivals, various occasions, and life-cycle events, including the dedication of a Sefer Torah or for completing the study of a tractate, as well as poems concerning redemption and repentance. A Lurianic kabbalist, Ibn Tsur wrote the poetic work Sefer me‘arat sedeh ha-makhpelah (The Book of the Cave of the Field of Machpelah, 1719). His halakhic poem Maskil shir ha-yedidot (Maskil, a Love Song, 1717) was written for a wider audience. The first part of the poem concerns the creation of the world and the second part describes the High Priest’s divine service in the Temple on Yom Kippur.