Otzerot Hayyim (The Treasure Houses of Life) and Mevo She‘arim (Introduction to the Gates), Hayyim Vital, Scribe: Abed bar Joseph el-Hak, Tetuan: [5]478-5489 (1718-1729)

227 leaves (8 x 6 in.; 201 x 150 mm). Early foliation in ink; modern, inconsistent [mis]foliation in pencil.

Yosef Avivi, Lurianic Kabbalah, vol. 2 (Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute, 2008), pp. 746-748 (in Hebrew).

Elisha Hayyim Ashkenazi (d. 1677) served as a charity emissary sent by the Jewish community of Jerusalem to Morocco, making several trips to the Maghreb. In addition to soliciting funds, Elisha, (father of the infamous Sabbatian prophet, Nathan of Gaza) was the first to introduce Lurianic texts to the Jews of North Africa. Along with the Sefer ha-Kavvanot edited by Benjamin ha-Levi and Elisha Guastalla, he brought with him Jacob Zemah’s Sefer Otzerot Hayyim and Mevo She‘arim. Because neither of the latter two works presented a complete picture of the process of divine emanation from beginning to end, Ashkenazi decided to incorporate parts of Mevo She‘arim into Sefer Otzerot Hayyim for that purpose.

The present manuscript contains numerous marginalia, including several (e.g., fols. 138b, 139a) by either Rabbi Abraham ibn Musa or Rabbi Abraham Azulai (ca. 1570-1643), both of whom were among the leading kabbalists of Marrakesh. Some of the marginalia (e.g., fols. 45b, 46a, 57b) also cite what appears to be the manuscript Ashkenazi himself brought with him from the Land of Israel. Many of these comments are highly important and were not printed when the book came to press in Livorno in 1844.