Siddur ha-Ari, edited by Hayyim Cohen of Aleppo; [Morocco]: 5488 (=1728)

160 folios (9 1/8 x 6 ¼ in.; 232 x 160 mm), 25-30 lines per page, Moroccan square, semi-cursive, and cursive scripts in several hands (cf. ff. 29-53, 87-102, 155-160), early foliation in pen, modern foliation in pencil; catchwords; owner’s stamps on ff. 85v, 97r; signature on f. 87r; illustration on f. 30v; periodic strikethroughs and marginalia. Soiled and stained; corners rounded; many leaves remargined, several reinforced along gutter, some holed, at times affecting text; edges worn. Later polished mottled blind tooled calf, some scratches, lightly rubbed.

Rabbi [Yitzhak Isaac Eichenstein] of Kivjažď, Forest Hills, NY

An important copy of the Lurianic prayer book edited by Hayyim Cohen of Aleppo, a student of Hayyim Vital (1542-1620) in Damascus and author of several halakhic/kabbalistic works, as well as commentaries on Esther, Ecclesiastes, and Ruth. The present lot is the longer of the two versions of Cohen’s siddur that have come down to us, neither one of which was ever printed. The present manuscript includes marginalia with comments by Joseph Luria and Abraham Azulai, both famous Moroccan kabbalists (see also MS Jerusalem, Ben Zvi Institute 2217, and MS Ancona, Comunita Israelitica 24, for two other Lurianic prayer books with comments by these rabbis). Decorative chapter headings, characteristic of Moroccan scribes, appear at various points.

The manuscript’s owner, Rabbi Yitzhak Isaac Eichenstein (1913-2004), was born in what is today Košice, Slovakia, became rabbi of Kivjažď (now Kam’yans’ke, Ukraine) after his father-in-law departed the city, and was deported to Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen in 1944. Having survived the war, he eventually moved to the United States in 1950, where he established Kehillat Ateret Tzevi in Forest Hills, NY.