Lehem Min ha-Shamayim, Jacob ben Hayyim Tzemah, [Italy, 17th century]

Fols. 1r-2r: Table of contents.

Fols. 6r-34v: Lehem min ha-Shamayim by Jacob ben Hayyim Zemah. Original short version of Zemah’s Nagid u-Mezzaveh on kabbalistic rituals and intentions.

Fols. 34v-45r: List of commandments and customs in the Zohar arranged in alphabetical order by subject.

Fols. 47r-60r: Toledot ha-Ari, the legendary biography of Isaac Luria (AR”I).  See M. Benayahu, The Toledoth ha-Ari (Jerusalem, 1967), p. 129, no. 8.

Sotheby’s is grateful to Menahem Schmelzer z”l and Benjamin Richler for cataloguing this manuscript.

Provenance

David Piazza of Ferrara, 1723 — Moise Luzatti — Moise Zaccaria Civitta da Rovigo — Solomon Halberstam (shelf no. 348)

Physical Description

64 leaves on paper (4 blank), 8 ¼ x 6 inches; 209 x 154 mm, written in Italian semi-cursive script in brown ink, catchwords, original foliation in ink in Hebrew letters (numbering 109-176), modern foliation in pencil (with errors); minor marginal staining, overall in fine condition. Library buckram.

Literature

Hirschfeld (ms. no. 340); Lehem min ha-Shamayim printed in Munkacs, 1905 (this manuscript is shorter than the printed edition); see Y. Avivi, in Kiryat Sefer, lviii (1983), pp. 183-191