Peirush al ha’Torah al Derach Ha’emeth-Sepher Recanati [commentary to the Pentateuch]

AUCTION 20 | Monday, June 02nd, 2003 at 5:00

Important Hebrew Printed Books from the Library of the Late Salman Schocken (1877-1959)

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Lot 33

RECANATI, MENACHEM.

Peirush al ha’Torah al Derach Ha’emeth-Sepher Recanati [commentary to the Pentateuch]

FIRST EDITION. Initial words of Leviticus and Numbers within woodcut borders ff. (156). Dampstained in places, clean tear on f.8 repaired, previous owner’s signatures on title, scattered marginalia, trace worming on few leaves. Later glit-tooled mottled-calf, rubbed at extremities. 4to Vinograd, Venice 85; Habermann, Bomberg 84; Mehlman 1113; Adams M- 1243

Venice: Daniel Bomberg 1523

Est: $3,000 - $5,000

PRICE REALIZED $4,000

Recanati was the foremost Italian Kabbalist and Halachic authority of the13th century. This commentary to the Pentateuch is the very first of its kind, permeated with the early Kabbalist’s new conceptions. It is the first to quote the Zohar and the Bahir, from which a large number of citations together with their interpretations are provided. For a full appreciation of the importance of the author, see M. Idel, Menachem Recanati, Hamekubal (1998) pp. 79-80 quoting Prof. Y. Ta-Shema concerning otherwise unknown scholars cited by Recanati. Rabbi Mordechai Jaffe, author of the "Levushim" which includes a commentary on this work, calls Recanati "Rosh Kablanim" (Preeminent of Kabbalists) and "Av Li'nevonim" (Father of the Cognoscente)