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Bidding Information
Lot #    8678
Auction End Date    12/7/2004 1:18:31 PM (mm/dd/yyyy)
          
Title Information
Title (English)    Torat Hakham
Title (Hebrew)    תורת חכם
Author    [Kabbalah - Only Ed.]R. Hayyim ha-Kohen of Alep
City    Venice
Publisher    Gio Imberti
Publication Date    1654
          
Collection Information
Independent Item    This listing is an independent item not part of any collection
          
Description Information
Physical
Description		    First edition. [6], 473, [5] ff., 280:190 mm., nice margins, light age and damp staining, initial and final ff. with minor expert repairs, stamps on title. A very good copy bound in modern half leather and marbled paper boards.
          
Detailed
Description		    R. Hayyim b. Abraham ha-Kohen of Aleppo (c. 1585–1655) is descendant from ancestors who went to Erez Israel after the expulsion from Spain (1492) and later settled in Aleppo. R. Hayyim was the disciple of R. Hayyim Vital during his last years in Damascus and he left an interesting story about his growing attachment to the study of Kabbalah under his teacher. Later, he was one of the rabbis of Aleppo. R. Hayyim wrote numerous works in the course of a 20-year period, which are listed in the introduction to his book Torat Hakham. During a long sea voyage which he undertook in order to bring these manuscripts to print, the ship was attacked by pirates off Malta. He saved himself by jumping into the sea near the coast, but all his manuscripts were lost. He states that he decided to write them again. Around 1650 he set out again for Constantinople where he stayed two to three years. The first part of his book Mekor Hayyim, a detailed kabbalistic commentary on the rules of the Shulhan Arukh was published here. At the end of 1652 he was in Smyrna; later he went to Venice and returned through Zante to Aleppo. Through the mediation of R. Samuel Aboab of Verona he had published in Venice the large volume of sermons, Torat Hakham (1654), with the kabbalist R. Moses Zacuto acting as proofreader. Another part of Mekor Hayyim, called Tur Bareket, was published by the brothers Raphael and Abraham b. Danan in Amsterdam in 1654. In the same year R. Hayyim set out again for Italy where he published two additional parts, Tur Piteda and Tur Yahalom (Leghorn, 1655). He died in Leghorn during the publication of his last book which thus remained incomplete, and only single sections have survived as pamphlets. All his commentaries on the Shulhan Arukh have been published in two volumes (1878). In Leghorn, he introduced R. Nathan Hannover to R. Isaac Luria's Kabbalah. Hannover included in his Sha'arei Ziyyon a lament by R. Hayyim for the Tikkun Hazot (midnight prayer), Kol be-Ramah Nishma, which has since become part of every edition of this midnight liturgy. Among his commentaries on the Five Scrolls, only Ateret Zahav on Esther, explained both according to the literal meaning (peshat) and the Kabbalah, in the author's handwriting (Jerusalem, J.N.U.L., Ms. 8°1581), and Torat Hesed on Ruth, have been preserved. The last, however, was published by the kabbalist R. David Lida as his own, under the title Migdal David (Amsterdam, 1680). This plagiarism was known in kabbalist circles even before it was made public by R. H. J. D. Azulai in Shem ha-Gedolim. In his books R. Hayyim quotes only portions from throughout the Zohar, and sometimes also the sayings of his teacher R. Vital, but most of his presentation is not based on other sources "and all his words are as if written from Sinai" (R. Nathan Hannover, introduction to Sha'arei Ziyyon). A prayer book with kabbalistic meditations by R. Hayyim is extant in several manuscripts (two at the Ben-Zvi Institute in Jerusalem). R. Hayyim "was very careful not to write amulets," and was also opposed to those who spent too much time in prayer, wasting thus the whole day upon mystical meditations. Among kabbalists he was considered as more of a theoretical scholar than a practical mystic.
          
Paragraph 2    ... פרוש רחב... ישר ופשוט עדיו מתוכו... הכינו וגם חקרו... אשר יצק מים על ידי... הרח"ו... הרב... חיים הכהן נר"ו. והוגה... ע"י... ר' משה בכה"ר מרדכי זכות זל"הה... במצות הקומיסאריאה וונדראמינה...

דרושים על התורה. בראש הספר שני שירים של ר' משה זכות: מזמור אמור וגמור עמוד נא אהרן גרון שנון לרון בשיר משמיח. אוצר השירה והפיוט, ג, עמ' 108, מס' 866; אם החכמה מהוללת ותחיה את בעליה. שם, א, עמ' 243, מס' 5292.

          
Reference
Description		    CD-EPI 0137821; EJ
        
Associated Images
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Listing Classification
Period
17th Century:    Checked
  
Location
Italy:    Checked
  
Subject
  
Kabbalah:    Checked
  
Characteristic
First Editions:    Checked
Language:    Hebrew
  
Manuscript Type
  
Kind of Judaica