Detail Description

Three independent works in one volume:

Maggid Mesharim, R. Joseph Caro, Vilna 1879 - R. Joseph Caro's Kabbalistic diary wherein he relates the revelations made to him by the Maggid in his dreams. R. Caro believed himself to be regularly visited - generally at night - by a heavenly mentor ("maggid") who revealed to him kabbalistic doctrines, as well as rules and predictions for his private ascetic life. This heavenly mentor identified himself as the heavenly archetype of the Mishnah and the Shekhinah, and manifested himself in the form of "automatic speech," i.e., as a voice coming out of Caro's mouth which could be heard by others. The best-known account of this phenomenon is that contained in a letter by R. Solomon Alkabez, recounting such a "maggidic" manifestation during a Shavuot-night vigil in R. Caro's house, probably in Nikopolis. These visitations, which continued for about 50 years, were not experienced in a state of trance, for R. Caro subsequently remembered the messages and wrote them down in a mystical diary. A small part of this diary has survived in manuscript and was subsequently printed under the title Maggid Mesharim (1st, incomplete, ed. Lublin, 1646; 2nd, supplementary, ed., Venice, 1649; 1st complete ed., Amsterdam, 1708). Attempts to deny R. Caro's authorship of the Maggid Mesharim were mainly inspired by the prejudice that this lucid halakhist could not possibly have exhibited such mystical states (seen as irrational, trance-like, or even pathological); the authenticity of the book is, however, beyond doubt.

R. Caro's mystical diary was recast by the editors before it was published in the form of a kabbalistic-homiletical commentary on the Pentateuch. Maggid Mesharim is a major source for a better knowledge of the state of the Kabbalah in the period after the expulsion from Spain and before the great revival in Safed of the new Kabbalah associated with the name of R. Isaac Luria. While not creating a new kabbalistic system or synthesizing earlier doctrines, R. Caro's diary throws much light on contemporary pre-Lurianic kabbalistic discussions, especially the doctrine of the Shekhinah and of the intermediary realms of being between the world of Azilut and the lower worlds.

Hesed le-Avraham, R. Abraham Azulai, Vilna 1877 - Hesed le-Avraham (first edition Amsterdam, 1685) is devoted to a thorough analysis of the principles of the Kabbalah in the spirit of R. Cordovero with R. Azulai and R. Luria's additions, as well as to a refutation of the arguments of the philosophers.

R. Abraham b. Mordehai Azulai (c. 1570–1643), was born in Fez, first mastered the study of the Talmud and philosophic literature and then Kabbalah. He did not agree with the interpretations of the Zohar which his teachers provided, and he did not really enter this subject until he obtained R. Moses Cordovero's Pardes Rimmonim. Thereafter, he was preoccupied with the question of the relation between Kabbalah and philosophy, until he forsook philosophy and dedicated himself entirely to Kabbalah. He decided to go to the center of kabbalism in Erez Israel, but did not realize his wish until after he had lost all his wealth during the anti-Jewish persecutions in Morocco (1610–13). He drifted between Hebron, Jerusalem, and Gaza during the epidemic of 1619, and finally settled in Hebron where kabbalists from Safed had congregated and where he found all the books of R. Cordovero and the majority of R. Isaac Luria's works in R. Hayyim Vital's version. R. Eliezer b. Arha became his friend there.

R. Azulai's numerous writings were not published during his lifetime. Those books he had written while still in Fez, were lost at sea. He wrote three treatises on the Zohar and several commentaries.

Sefer Karnayim with commentary Dan Yadin, R. Aaron ben Abraham of Kardina, NP,ND - Kabbalistic work by R. Aaron ben Abraham of Kardina with the commentary Dan Yadin of R. Samson ben Pesah Ostropoler. The subject matter are the doctrines of Lurianic Kabbalah as explained by R. Ostropoler. His explanations are completely different form those of R, Hayyim Vital. From 28b until the end of the volume is Likkutei Shoshanim, additional writings of R. Ostropoler. The title page is dated “And his brightness is like the light; rays (Karnayim) flash from his hand תהיה קרנים מידו (545=1745)” (Habakkuk 3:4), which is also the verse from which the book’s title is taken. The title of the commentary is from “Dan shall judge (Dan Yadin) his people” (Genesis 49:16).

R. Samson ben Pesah Ostropoler is considered among the greatest kabbalists of Polish Jewry. He was a preacher and Maggid in Polonnoye (Volhynia) where he died a martyr’s death together with 300 of his followers (July 22, 1648) during the Chmielnicki massacres. R. Ostropoler, one of the principal proponents of Lurianic Kabbalah in Poland, corresponded with many contemporary kabbalists. None of his writings was published during his lifetime and it is not until the following generation that scattered quotations in his name are found in various kabbalistic books. A grandson published his notes in a commentary on the Zohar, Aspaklarya Me'irah (Fuerth, 1776). R. Ostropoler’s main work was a commentary to the Zohar, Mahaneh Dan, which is no longer extant. Anti-Christian and elaborate messianic hints appear in his writings. It is reported that he predicted the year of the coming of the Messiah and forecast the Russo-Japanese War. The unique character of R. Ostropoler’s writings led to their being widely quoted in later kabbalistic literature.

R. Aaron ben Abraham of Kardina, referred to on the title page as the author of Iggeret ha-Tamim, and his city, Kardina, mentioned on the title page, are otherwise unknown except for extremely obscure allusions in the text. It was suggested, as early the 18th century that both Sefer Karnayim and Dan Yadin were written by the same person, which is confirmed by an analysis of all R. Ostropoler’s remaining writings.

Hebrew Description

References

CD-NLI 0162138; EJ; JE

EJ; JE; Rabinowicz, Encyclopedia of Hasidism p. 354