Physical Description

Folio, 331:198 mm., age and damp staining, title with tears, old hands. A good copy bound in contemporary leather over boards, rubbed.

Detail Description

A monumental and extensive work first published in Amsterdam, 1649 (with many later editions by his son R. Shabbetai who offered as an introduction his own Vavei ha-Ammudim). In this extensive work, halakhah, homily, and Kabbalah are combined for the purpose of giving directions as to how to live an ethical life. Shelah wrote it "for his children after him" but for general guidance also. The work contains excerpts of homilies and comments which he had noted before going to Erez Israel, but it was arranged and completed in Erez Israel. The vastness of the material and its various strata impair its clarity. Among the works which influenced him or which he recommended for study, Shelah mentions most ethical works, from Bahya's Hovot ha-Levavot to his father's Berit Avraham. The Shelah has a preface entitled Toledot Adam and a kabbalistic introduction called Be-Asarah Ma'amarot. The book consists of two parts, Derekh Hayyim, containing laws according to the order of the festivals in the calendar, and Luhot ha-Berit, summarizing the 613 commandments in the order in which they appear in the Bible. There are three sections: Ner Mitzvah, dealing with the various precepts; Torah Or, elucidating the reasons for the precepts according to Kabbalah; and Tokhahat Musar, summarizing the ethical teachings stemming from the various precepts. The laws for every day of the year are arranged in the framework of tractates: those for ordinary days in tractate Hullin, for the Sabbath in tractate Shabbat, etc. The author deals with the 13 hermeneutical rules for interpreting the Torah and also discusses talmudic methodology. Shelah gave instructions that the last section of his work, called Asarah Hillulim, should not be published, since he wrote it as a testament to his children and pupils; nevertheless, his son R. Shabbetai Sheftel permitted its publication, commenting that the whole world was included among his pupils (introduction to the Vavei ha-Ammudim).

R. Horowitz, (called Shelah ha-Kadosh, "the holy Shelah," from the initials of the title of his major work), rabbi, kabbalist, and communal leader was born in Prague, but as a youth he moved to Poland with his father, who was his first teacher. He studied there under Rabbi Solomon b. Judah of Cracow, Rabbi Meir of Lublin (the Maharam), and Rabbi Joshua Falk and gained a reputation among Polish scholars while still young. In 1621, after the death of his wife, he moved to Erez Israel and settled in Jerusalem, where he remarried and became the rabbi of the Ashkenazi community. He died in Tiberius where his grave (close to that of Maimonides) is still visited. His name carries with it the surname “The Holy” as he dedicated his life and work to the Jewish nation.

Hebrew Description

על שער שני לוחות הברית: בשנת ש’נ’י’ ל’ו’ח’ו’ת א’ב’נ’י’ם’ כרא’שוני’ם [תקכ"ד]. על שער ווי העמודים: בשנת ו’ו’י’ העמודים וחש’ק’יהם כ’סף’ [תקכ"ב].

ח, ח-[לו] דף, עם שער מיוחד: הקדמת ספר ווי העמודים ... הוציא לאורה ... כמהר"ר שעפטל נר"ו [!].

בטופס שני שראינו הדפים יח-כב, כה, שונים בצורתם, ונראה שנדפסו פעם שניה.

Reference

Bibliography of the Hebrew Book 1470-1960 #000119851; EJ