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Segulah (Amulet) for safeguarding, R. Judah Ftiia, [Jerusalem] 20th Century

סגולה לשמירה - Kabbalah

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Details
  • Lot Number 47334
  • Title (English) Segulah Kemai (Amulet) for safeguarding
  • Title (Hebrew) סגולה לשמירה
  • Note Kabbalah
  • Author R. Judah Ftiia
  • City [Jerusalem]
  • Publication Date 20th Century
  • Estimated Price - Low 200
  • Estimated Price - High 500

  • Item # 1363694
  • End Date
  • Start Date
Description

Physical Description

2 pp., 138:110 mm., octavo, light age staining, creased on folds.

 

Detailed Description   

Two pages containing text that serves as a kemai (amulet) by the gaon, the kabbalist R. Judah ben Moses Yeshua Ftiia (1859-1942). The text is taken from a manuscript by R. Ftiia. R. Ftiia was the author of Aderah Zutah – Yayin ha-Rekah (Baghdad, 1909), Minhat Yehudah (Baghdad, 1933), Bet Lehem Yehudah (Jerusalem, 1936), and several additional highly regarded works.

Amulets are frequently mentioned in talmudic literature. The term used is kame'a or kami'a (pl. kemi'ot or kemi'in), a word whose origin is obscure. It is possible that it derives from a root meaning "to bind" (cf. Rashi to Shab. 61a), but it might come from an Arabic root meaning "to hang." In either case, the reference is clearly something that is bound or hung on the person (cf. Kohut, Arukh, 7 (19262), 123). The Talmud mentions two sorts of kemi'ot: a written one and the kame'a shel ikrin, a kame'a made from roots of a certain plant. The written kame'a was a parchment inscribed with one or more quotations from a variety of sources, including the Scriptures (cf. Shab. 61b). The question arose whether the amulets were invested with the holiness of the scriptural scrolls and whether they should, therefore, be saved from a conflagration occurring on the Sabbath. A baraita is quoted which specifically states that they are not holy and that they, together with other texts which contain scriptural quotations (lit. berakhot), should be left to burn (ibid.). In the original Tosefta text, however, no mention is made of kemi'ot (Tosef. Shab. 13:4).

R. Judah Moses Ftayya (Petaya, 1859–1942 of Baghdad kabbalist was a student of Rabbi Joseph Ḥayyim al-Ḥakam (Ben Ish Ḥay). R. Ftayya eventually took up residence in Jerusalem, where he exerted great influence through his writings, activities, and the illustrious family he founded. He studied there with R. Ḥayyim Saul Duwayk, who after succumbing to blindness dictated his commentary on R. Ḥayyim Vital’s Oṣrot Ḥayyim, Efah Shelema to R. Ftayya and R. Joseph Ḥayyim Sofer. R. Ftayya cared for R. Duwayk in his infirmity, aided by Sulaymān Moṣfi.

 

Hebrew Description  

הועתקה מכתיבת יד... ר' יאודה משה פתייא זצוק"ל...

 

Bibliography