Sha’ar HaHachanah [deathbed ritual].

Naftali ben Yitzhak Katz HaKohen (1645-1719) was an early-modern mystic who served in a number of communal rabbinic positions in Poland and Germany (notably Ostrog, Posen and Frankfurt). Recognized for his Talmudic acumen, he was consulted by leading sages of the time, including the Chacham Tzvi, R. David Oppenheim, R. Ya’akov Reischer, R. Yechezkel Katzenellenbogen and R. Avraham Broda. The present work contains instructions for how a dying person should conduct himself in his final days, along with the prayers to be recited shortly before death. The author’s own Ethical Will “contains profound thoughts and moral instruction, and some see in it one of the first sparks of practical Chasidism” see www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/katz-naphtali-ben-isaac.