View Auction Listing - Ozerot Hayyim; Adam Yosher

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Bidding Information
Lot #		21279
Auction End Date		8/12/2008 11:28:30 AM (mm/dd/yyyy)

Title Information

Title (English)

Ozerot Hayyim; Adam Yosher

Title (Hebrew)

אוצרות חיים; אדם ישר

Author

[Ms. - Kabbalah] R. Hayyim Vital

City

Ashkenaz

Publication Date

1682

Item of
Exceptional
Interest

Checked

Collection Information

Independent Item

This listing is an independent item not part of any collection

Description Information

Physical
Description

[264; 78, 24 blanks, 60] pp., 304:190 mm., light age staining, ink on paper, beautiful Ashkenazic script, scroll decorations and illustrations, bound in later boards, split.

Paragraph 1

Ozerot Hayyim predates the first printed edition of this work (Korets 1783) by one hundred years.

Adam Yosher predates the first printed edition of this work (Cracow 1885) by two hundred years.

Detailed
Description

Ozerot Hayyim - Kabbalistic discourses by R. Hayyim Ben Joseph Vital (1542–1620), one of the greatest kabbalists and the leading disciple of R. Isaac ben Solomon Luria Ashkenazi (ha-Ari, 1534–1572). The text was compiled and arranged by R. Vital’s pupil, the Portuguese physician R. Jacob Zemah (d. c. 1665), who also edited and annotated the work. It was corrected by R. Abraham Azulai and Abraham ibn Musa of Morocco. These are important kabbalistic works explaining concepts of Lurianic Kabbalah. The torn and tattered pages of the "last version" (mahadurah batra) of R. Vital's works, which R. Vital arranged in Jerusalem were discovered by R. Abraham Azulai and his colleagues, apparently shortly after 1620, in a genizah in Jerusalem. From these writings R. Jacob Zemah arranged Ozerot Hayyim and several other works.

R. Hayyim Vital's works which circulated during his lifetime among the kabbalists in Palestine were not arranged in good order. Around 1620 R. Benjamin ha-Levi and R. Elisha Vestali (or Gastali) assembled them into a three-volume edition. This, too, was not printed but was very popular in subsequent generations. It included Sefer ha-Derushim, mainly composed of material belonging to Sha'ar ha-Hakdamot and Sha'ar ha-Gilgulim; Sefer ha-Kavvanot; and Sefer ha-Likkutim. R. Vital's writings first reached other countries in this edition, which is extant in several libraries.

Bound with an additional incomplete kabbalah work: Adam Yosher by R. Hayyim Vital.

Paragraph 2

ספר זה הוא חיבור של ר' חיים וויטאל שמצא ר' אברהם אזולאי בגניזה בירושלים, ונערך על ידי ר' יעקב צמח. עיין: י' אביב"י, בנין אריאל, ירושלים תשמ"ז, עמ' נו-נט. נדפס על פי כתב יד שהוגה בבית מדרשו של ר' משה זכות. בראש "הגהות החברים": "קול הרמז" או "נתן", הם ר' משה זכות ור' נתן שפירא.

אדם ישר אשר חיבר הרב ... יצחק לוריא אשכנזי ז"ל ... מפי הקבלה האמתית שקבל מפי אליהו ז"ל. והי' טמון בין כתבי ... תלמידו ... מוה' חיים וויטאל ז"ל. עד אשר קם הרב ... יעקב צמח ז"ל והעתיק וסידר ספר ...

ספר זה נערך מכתבי ר' חיים וויטאל על ידי ר' יעקב צמח. החיבור בצורתו הנוכחית הוא עיבוד שעשה ר' יעקב צמח לשני חיבורים קודמים שלו, שנקראו בשם "קהילת יעקב" ו"אדם ישר" נוסח ראשון. עיין: י' אביב"י, בנין אריאל, ירושלים תשמ"ז, עמ' סד.

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