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Yesod ha-Emunah; Ammud ha-Avodah, R. Baruch of Kosow, Czernowitz 1864;1863

יסוד האמונה; עמוד העבודה - Kabbalah - Hasidic

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Details
  • Lot Number 48291
  • Title (English) Yesod ha-Emunah; Ammud ha-Avodah
  • Title (Hebrew) יסוד האמונה; עמוד העבודה
  • Note Hasidic - Kabbalah
  • Author R. Baruch of Kosow
  • City Czernowitz (Chernovtsy)
  • Publisher דפוס אליהו איגעל
  • Publication Date 1864; 1863
  • Estimated Price - Low 300
  • Estimated Price - High 600

  • Item # 1445646
  • End Date
  • Start Date
Description

Physical Description

Second editions, Part I, 4 (of 6), 154 ff, quarto;  226:138 mm.,

Part II, 3, [3], 238 ff., wide margins, light age and damp staining. A good copy bound in contemporary boards, no back panel.

 

Detail Description

Kabbalistic commentary to Pentateuch, Tractate Avot, and more by R. Baruch b. Abraham of Kosow (c. 1725/30–1795), kabbalist. He was a disciple of R. Menahem Mendel of Vitebsk and also studied with R. Menahem Mendel of Przemyslany for a short while. R. Baruch became Maggid in Kosov. In his sermons he tried to make the kabbalist doctrine, as taught mainly by R. Isaac Luria and R. Hayyim Vital, easily comprehensible by the use of explanatory metaphors. According to R. Baruch, R. Luria was the highest authority on Kabbalah. Therefore, he advised all who wished to study the Zohar, first to read R. Luria and R. Vital. R. Baruch interpreted (as did R. Joseph Ergas) R. Luria's doctrine of "zimzum" (i.e., G-d's self-willed withdrawal), as a metaphor and not as an actual fact. On this point he argued against the realistic interpretation of R. Immanuel Hai Ricchi. R. Baruch taught that the true life of every material entity was conditioned by its spiritual aspect. He therefore contended that full surrender and complete attachment to G-d was possible because this was an intellectual discipline originating in a love which knows no limits. He maintained that it was possible to attain a concept of things, first through the senses, then on a higher level, through the imagination, and finally, at the highest stage, through wisdom. It was only through wisdom that one could perceive the spiritual quality inherent in every material being. Only wisdom had the capacity to feel the pain which the soul inevitably felt when man committed a sin. R. Baruch conceded that the questions of predestination and free will were so difficult as to be unanswerable. Nevertheless he believed in both, and counseled unconditional belief in them (Ammud ha-Avodah, 1854; Yesod ha-Emmunah, 1854). R. Baruch was totally and aggressively against the followers of Shabbetai Zevi and Jacob Frank. In 1760 his antagonism to the latter apparently motivated him to begin writing the above books with the aim of refuting the anthropomorphism applied by Frankists to the basic concepts of Kabbalah. From 1761 he had started to collect from learned authorities their written commentaries on the manuscripts of his books. However, it was only in 1854 that they were actually printed in Czernowitz: Yesod ha-Emunah, on the Pentateuch and miscellanies; Ammud ha-Avodah, on the basic questions of Kabbalah, including "a lengthy introduction to explain the essence of the spiritual entities."


Hebrew Description

 יסוד האמונה... הובא לבית הדפוס ע"י יורשי המנוח מוהר"ר משלם היללער ז"ל. ה"ה חתניו הר’ אליהו איגעל נ"י והר’ יוסף האאס נ"י וע"י נכדי המחבר ... האחד ... מוה’ אליעזר בהמנוח מהו’ יחיאל מיכל כ"ץ בן בתו של המחבר ... והשני ... מהו’ משה בהרב ... אברהם בן המחבר ...

עם ההסכמות שבאו בהוצאה הראשונה.

עמוד העבודה...הובא לבית הדפוס ע"י יורשי המנוח מוהר"ר משלם הילער ז"ל. חתניו הר' אליהו איגעל נ"י, והר' יוסף האאס ...

עם ההסכמות שבאו ב"יסוד האמונה", טשערנאוויץ תרי"ד, חוץ מהסכמות ר' ארי' ליב ור' אהרן מבאטשאן.

 

References

Bibliography of the Hebrew Book 1470-1960 #000114106; 000114110; EJ; A. Yaari, Mehkerei Sefer (1958), 453–4; I. Tishby, in: Zion, 32 (1967), 24–29