Torat ha-Olah, Moses Isserles, Prague: Mordecai ben Gershom Katz, 1570

179 ([6],173) leaves (11 x 7 1/4 in.; 280 x 183 mm).  Woodcut ornamental frame on title page, woodcut reproduction of device of Venetian printer Marco Antonio Giustiniani on ff. 33v and 69r; woodcut decorated initial word panel frames on ff. 34v and 70r; includes the rare final leaf (f. 173) with acrostic poem missing from most copies. Title with owner's stamp; marginal tape repairs in final quire. Ownership notes on pastedown endpapers. Dampstaining, occasional spotting. Eighteenth-century vellum, ms. title on spine.

Vinograd, Prague 36; Steinschneider. 6483, 22; Heller, The Sixteenth Century Hebrew Book, pp. 612-3.

Moses Isserles (c. 1530-1572), also known by the acronym Rema, is best-known for his glosses on the Shulhan Arukh of Joseph Caro. In this philosophic and scientific work, Torat ha-Olah, he explains the symbolism, meaning, and purpose of the Holy Temple, its measurements, and the sacrifices offered there.  Isserles attempts to justify the study of philosophy and show its consistency with Kabbalah, the differences between these studies being a matter of expression.

Considerable attention is given to astronomy, which, together with cosmological process, is correlated to the measurements of the Temple and the meaning of sacrifices. Isserles follows Maimonides in believing that Aristotle is correct concerning the sublunar world, but in error as regards creation. Isserles' discussions of philosophy and science engendered attacks from Solomon Luria, to which Isserles replied in several printed responsa.