Lot 177
  • 177

Derekh Ets Hayyim (Path of the Tree of Life), Rabbi Hayyim Vital, [Ashkenaz: second half of the 18th century]

Estimate
4,000 - 6,000 USD
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Description

  • Ink on paper
171 folios (7 3/4 x 6 3/8 in.; 196 x 162 mm) on paper; contemporary and modern foliation in pen and pencil in Hebrew characters and Arabic numerals at upper-outer margin of recto; written in elegant Ashkenazic square (titles, incipits, and divine names) and semi-cursive (text body) scripts in dark brown ink; outer margins ruled in blind; vocalization of divine names on ff. 129v-130v; catchwords at foot of virtually every page; marginalia (often references) and strikethroughs in hand of primary scribe throughout. Enlarged incipits and divine names; justification of lines via use of anticipatory letters and abbreviations; headers intermittently throughout; occasional adornment of square-script letters with decorative tagin (crowns) surrounded by dots; comments and glosses (by Zemah and others) inset; table of contents on ff. 3v-4v; diagrams (often of special forms of letters) on ff. 26r, 45v, 47v-48r, 53r, 73v-74r, 162r; tapering text on f. 59r; chart of the Ten Sefirot on f. 88v. Margins shaved, sometimes affecting marginalia; light scattered smudging and/or staining; paper repairs on ff. 1-2; slight damage on ff. 12r-v, 21v, 25v, 29v-30r, 52r, 53r affecting only individual words; light dampstaining in upper edge on ff. 71r-111v; worm track in lower-outer corner of ff. 89r-92v; small hole on f. 136, without loss. Modern blind-tooled morocco, flyleaves, and pastedowns; spine in five compartments with raised bands and blind-tooled floral motifs.

Catalogue Note

A copy of the first sixteen she‘arim (gates) of Derekh ets hayyim, the first of three volumes edited by Rabbi Meir Poppers (1624-1662) based on Lurianic kabbalistic works compiled by Rabbis Benjamin ha-Levi (ca. 1590-1672), Elisha Guastalla, and Jacob Zemah (1584-1667), Poppers’ teacher (among other sources). These latter works themselves derived in large part from the writings of Rabbi Hayyim Vital (1542-1620), Rabbi Isaac Luria’s (1534-1572) most prominent student. The book treats Luria’s theology surrounding the process of divine emanation and the creation of the world. The body of the work (ff. 24r-171v) is preceded by Poppers’ introduction (ff. 1r-7r); Sha‘ar ha-Kelalim (The Gate of Rules; ff. 7v-17v), a summary of the kabbalistic teaching of Rabbi Moses Jonah (sixteenth century), another important student of Luria’s, in thirteen chapters; and extracts from various Lurianic other treatises (ff. 17v-22v). The text of the present manuscript differs somewhat from that of the printed edition (Korets, 1782).

Literature

Yosef Avivi, “Ets hayyim, Peri ets hayyim ve-Nof ets hayyim me-et rabbi hayyim vital,” Tsefunot 5,1 (1993): 84-91.