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Berit Menuhah, R. Abraham of Granada, Berdichev 1807

ברית מנוחה - Kabbalah - Hasidic approbation

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Details
  • Lot Number 44808
  • Title (English) Berit Menuhah
  • Title (Hebrew) ברית מנוחה
  • Note Kabbalah - Hasidic approbation
  • Author R. Abraham of Granada
  • City Berdichev
  • Publisher Samuel b. Ber Segal
  • Publication Date 1807
  • Estimated Price - Low 300
  • Estimated Price - High 600

  • Item # 1143330
  • End Date
  • Start Date
Description

Physical Description

First corrected edition. 40 ff., 205:166 mm., wide margins, printed on blue paper, title repairs not touching text. A very good copy bound in modern half cloth over boards.
 

Detail Description

R. Abraham b. Isaacof Granada, Spanish kabbalist, putative author of Berit Menuhah (“The Covenant of Rest”), one of the main works of the Kabbalah. Nothing is known of his life or of the era to which he belongs. In the introduction to his commentary on Sefer Yezirah, R. Moses Botarel gives a long quotation from Sefer ha-Berit (“The Book of the Covenant”) written by a scholar called R. Abraham b. Isaac of Granada. But both language and contents prove that this book was not written by the author of Berit Menuhah, which was without doubt composed in Spain during the 14th century. It explains the innermost meaning of the vocalization of G-d's name in 26 different ways. However, only the first ten ways were printed, and this only in a very corrupt form (Amsterdam, 1648): R. H.J.D. Azulai saw more than twice this number in a manuscript. The actual content of this work is very enigmatic as, in many respects, its symbolism and mysticism do not correspond with the conventional Kabbalah. The influence of R. Abraham Abulafia's Kabbalah is recognizable but the language-and-letter-mysticism of R. Abulafia is combined with a complicated light-mysticism. Moreover, the book's aim was to provide a systematic basis for the so-called Practical Kabbalah. The few clear passages reveal the author as a profound thinker and visionary. In eight places, he quotes his own thought process as the words of “the learned Rabbi Simeon bar Yohai,” mostly in Aramaic. But these quotations are not to be found in the Zohar, and in view of their style and contents do not belong there. The work was highly regarded by later kabbalists, especially by R. Moses Cordovero and R. Isaac Luria, who read their own thinking into R. Abraham's symbolism. R. Cordovero wrote a lengthy commentary on part of the book. R. Abraham quotes two more of his own works, Megalleh ha-Ta'alumot (“Revealing Hidden Things”) and Sefer ha-Gevurah (“The Book of Power”), on the names of G-d and Practical Kabbalah.
 
 

Hebrew Description

[מאת] ר' אברהם מרימון הספרדי ... בביאור עשר נקוד' שם בן ארבע ... דברי קבלה מפא"פ ... ומרוב חשובתו[!] נדפס בנייר יפה ודיו נאה ... על ידי שלשה נדיבי לב: ... זאב בהרב המפורסים מוהר"ר יהודא שמשון שפירא, מ"מ דק"ק טארניפאל זלה"ה: וע"י הרבני מוהר"ר יוסף במוהר"ר משה: וע"י האברך ... נתן נטע בהרבני מוהר"ר משה מעשל נר"י:

ב"הקדמת המביאים לבית הדפוס" נאמר, שהספר הוגה "מדפוס אמשטרדם ומדפוס זאלקווי". מעבר לשער הסכמת ר' לוי יצחק ב"ר מאיר, בארדיטשוב, יב אדר- ב תקס"ז.

 

Reference Description 
 
BE 1519; CD-NLI 0106829; EJ