Araki, Habshush, and Najar. Emunath Hashem [“The Faith of God.”]
AUCTION 22 |
Tuesday, January 27th,
2004 at 1:00
Fine Judaica: Printed Books, Manuscripts and Works of Graphic Art Including Holy Land Maps, Illustrated Books, Photography and Graphic Art from The Collection of Daniel M. Friedenberg of Greenwich, Conn
Lot 139
(POLEMICS).
Araki, Habshush, and Najar. Emunath Hashem [“The Faith of God.”]
Jerusalem: 1937-8
Est: $500 - $700
A defense of Kabbalah by Yemenite rabbis in Jerusalem against the Milchamoth Hashem (1931) of R. Yihye ben Solomon Kafah (Kafih) (1850-1932), chief rabbi of San'a, Yemen. Milchamoth Hashem had attacked the Zohar and its system of sephiroth (divine hypostases) as “idolatry.” The present work, Emunath Hashem, which defends the sanctity of Kabbalah and the Book of Zohar, refutes Kafah's work point by point. Each quote from Kafah (in Rashi script) is followed by a refutation (in square letters). The book was approved by a broad spectrum of Jerusalem luminaries: Jacob Meir, Isaac Halevi Herzog, Zevi Pesach Frank, Ben-Zion Uziel, Yosef Zevi Dushinsky, Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook, Jacob Moses Charlap, Shalom Hadaya, Shimon Zevi Hurwitz, Moses Amiel, et al. See M. Carmilly-Weinbeger, Censorship and Freedom of Expression in Jewish History (New York, 1977), pp. 99-102; B. Naor, Post-Sabbatian Sabbatianism (1999), pp. 54, 178-9.
Dr. Benny Ogorek, who earlier published on the Emden-Eybeschütz controversy, is preparing a comprehensive work on the Yemenite polemic concerning the Zohar