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Or ha-Hammah, Part I, R. Abraham Azulai, Jerusalem 1876

אור החמה ח"א - First Edition - Kabbalah - Hasidic

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Details
  • Lot Number 53653
  • Title (English) Or ha-Hammah, Part I
  • Title (Hebrew) אור החמה ח"א
  • Note First Edition - Kabbalah
  • Author R. Abraham Azulai
  • City Jerusalem
  • Publisher Joel Moshe Soliman
  • Publication Date 1876
  • Estimated Price - Low 300
  • Estimated Price - High 600
  • Item # 2436609
  • End Date
  • Start Date
Description

Physical Description

First edition. [2], 136 ff. folio 314:188 mm., wide margins, usual age staining. A very good copy bound in contemporary boards, rubbed, new spine.
 
Hasidic approbations and sponsors:
1. R. Hayyim Halberstam of Sanz - the Divre Hayyim offers a strong approbation and sponsorship for printing this holy kabbalistic volume.
2. R. Jekutiel Judah Teitelbaum of Siget - the Yitev Lev, likewise offers a strong approbation and sponsorship.
3. R. Shmuel Heller of Safed - the Chief Rabbi of Safed joins in with the above.
4. R. Ezekiel Shraga Halberstam of Sieniawa visited the press and encouraged all to support and complete the publication of the volume. A special letter of gratitude is dedicated to him on the final page.
5. R. Issac Beam, dayyan of Krula, and R. Shneer Zalman Schneerson served as printers.
 

Detail Description

A complete commentary on the Zohar by R. Abraham ben Mordecai Azulai. Or ha-Hammah ("The Light of the Sun") is based mainly on R. Moses Cordovero’s Pardes Rimmonim.  and also on R. Isaac Luria's (Ha-Ari) commentary, and on a commentary on the Zohar by R. Hayyim Vital written before he knew R. Luria, and marginal notes on the Zohar by an unknown author. R. Azulai abbreviated R. Cordovero's phraseology; occasionally he quoted statements by Cordovero and added his own interpretations. The result is a comprehensive and important commentary to the Zohar. This is the first printing of the protion on Genesis. Or ha-Hamah has approbations from R. Israel Benjamin, R. Abraham Ashkenazi, R. Meir Auerbach, R. Hayyim Alberstam, R. Jekutiel Judah Teitelbaum, R. Samuel Heller. R. Shimon Manasseh ben Moses. The text encompasses Genesis and Vayikra, the section on Exodus not being present.
 
R. Abraham ben Mordecai Azulai, (c. 1570–1643), kabbalist. Azulai, who 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 Cordovero and the majority of R. Isaac Luria 's works in R. Hayyim Vital 's version. R. Eliezer b. Arha became his friend there. 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: (1) Or ha-Levanah ("The Light of the Moon"), annotations and textual corrections based sometimes on conjecture and sometimes on early manuscripts (1899); (2), this work, Or ha-Hammah; (3) Or ha-Ganuz ("The Hidden Light"), an explanation of the profound expressions in the Zohar, which was never published. To these three works he gave the all-inclusive title Kiryat Arba, alluding to the four above-mentioned commentators and the city of Hebron. In 1622, Azulai abridged R. Abraham Galante 's (Cordovero's disciple) commentary on the Zohar, Yare'ah; Yakar, under the title Zoharei Ḥammah (Gen., 1655; Ex., 1882). His book Hesed le-Avraham (Amsterdam, 1685) is devoted to a thorough analysis of the principles of the Kabbalah in the spirit of Cordovero with his own and Luria's additions, as well as to a refutation of the arguments of the philosophers. R. Azulai adhered to Lurianic kabbalism and believed that it superseded Cordovero's system. He reedited the Lurianic Sefer ha-Kavvanot ("The Book of Intentions") and wrote two books based on it: Kenaf Renanim and Ma'aseh Hoshev (1621/2; in Mss.). He also wrote a commentary on the Bible in a somewhat mystical style, entitled Ba'alei Berit Avraham (1873), and a commentary on the Mishnah, Ahavah be-Ta'anugim, in manuscripts. The part on Avot was printed in Jerusalem, 1910.
 
 

Hebrew Description

[והוא החלק השני מספר קרית ארבע... והוא ביאור על זוהר ...הובא לבה"ד ע"י ... ר' יצחק נ"י ביהעם שהיה ד"ץ בק"ק קראהלע במדינת אונגארן וע"י ... ר' שניאור זלמן בהר"ר נחום יוסף זללה"ה שניאורזאהן ... ח"א-ג.

בהוצאה זו נדפס הביאור לבראשית - ויקרא.  הפירוש לבראשית ושמות, שנדפס כאן לראשונה, כולל פירושי ר' משה קורדובירו, ר' חיים וויטאל, האר"י ו"גליונות", ביאורים של מקובל אנונימי שהועתקו מגליון ספר הזהר שעליו נכתבו. 

ח"א: בראשית. בשנת הנה מלכך יבא לך צ'ד'י'ק' ו'נ'ו'ש'ע' [תרל"ו]. [1], ב, קלו דף.  דף קלו,ב: דברי המביא לדפוס ר' יצחק איצק בעהם, הכותב שהיוזם של הוצאת הספר הוא ר' יחזקאל שרגא הלברשטאם משינאווא. 

חלק ב: שמות. בשנת ו'י'ג'י'ד'ו' צ'ד'ק'ת'ו' לעם נולד כי עשה [תרל"ט]. [2], רט, [1] דף.  הדף האחרון: "לוח הציורים השייכים לפרשת ואתה תחזה ולפרשת ויקהל פקודי"(נדפס על צד אחד). 

חלק ג: ויקרא. בשנת ו'י'ג'י'ד'ו' צ'ד'ק'ת'ו' לעם נולד כי עשה [תרל"ט, 1879]. [2], צ דף.  דף [2]: ציורים, לפרשת ויקרא ולפרשת אחרי מות. "מפותחים" על ידי דוד שפיטצער.

הסכמות: ר' ישראל בנימן (ניתנה בחיי המחבר), ירושלים, [ת' לערך]; - ח"א  ר' אברהם אשכנזי, ירושלם, תמוז תרל"א; - ח"א  ר' מאיר אויערבאך, ירושלם, טו תמוז תרל"א; - ח"א  הסכמה שניה מאת ר' אברהם אשכנזי, ועמו ר' מאיר אויערבאך, ירושלם, יט [אלול] תרל"ה; - ח"א  ר' חיים הלברשטאם, צאנז, ד ויצא תרל"ו; - ח"א  ר' יקותיאל יהודא טייטלבוים, סיגעט, טז טבת תרל"ו; - ח"א  ר' שמואלהעליר, צפת, ראש חודש אלול תרל"ו. - ח"א  בחלק ב: ההסכמות שנדפסו בח"א (פרט להסכמה הראשונה של ר' אברהם אשכנזי), ונוספה הסכמת ר' שמעון מנשה ב"ר משה [חייקין], חברון.

 

References
 
Bibliography of the Hebrew Book 1470-1960 #000120318; BE alef 1135; EJ; Halevy, Jerusalem, 265