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Ethical work on the principles of faith by R. Aaron Samuel ben Moses Shalom of Kremnitz. The title page has rows of florets and, at the top, the verse, “The spirit (nishmat) of man is the candle of the Lord” (Proverbs 20:27). It is dated with the chronogram, “O how I love your Torah! It is my meditation all the day” (Psalms 119:97). There is an approbation signed by R. Isaiah ben Abraham Horowitz, R. Moses Bachrach, R. Samuel ben Abraham Alisos, R. Aaron ben Joshua Moses Luria, R. Ezriel ben Ish Hai of ולהויזן, rabbis in Frankfort, and a second approbation from R. Elia ben Moses Luntz, Hanua. The approbations are followed by R. Aaron Samuel’s introduction (2a-3a) and the text, in a single column in rabbinic type, excepting headers and initial words, which are in square letters. The text is accompanied by marginal notes. Nishmat Adam is divided into ten chapters. The subject matter is the origin and essence of the soul, purpose of man's existence, the future world, and rewards and punishments (divine retribution).
R. Aaron Samuel ben Moses Shalom of Kremnitz was a pupil of R. Ephraim Solomon ben Aaron Luntschits (1550-1619) when the latter was rabbi at Lemberg. R. Aaron Samuel was forced to emigrate to Germany as a youth. Toward the end of 1606 he was preaching in Fuerth. In 1611 he was in Eibelstadt (not, as often stated, Eisenstadt), Lower Franconia, where he wrote Nishmat Adam. In 1615 he became rabbi in Fulda, where he wrote an introduction and notes to a homily on the Decalogue by R. Baruch Axelrod (Hanau, 1616). In Nishmat Adam R. Aaron Samuel mentions three unpublished works on ethical and religio-philosophical problems (Be'er Sheva. Or Torah. and Ein Mishpat), as well as novellae to the Talmud, entitled Kitvei Kodesh. |
