Derush Tephilath Yesharim

Tephilath Yesharim contains the text of a sermon delivered by R.Jacob Emden in 1731 when he served as rabbi of Altona and environ. Its theme is the importance of preserving one’s humility while serving in public office. The sermon was generated by tensions between Emden and the lay leaders of the Altona community. See Mortimer J. Cohen, Jacob Emden: A Man of Controversy (Philadelphia, 1937), pp. 58-59. The second part of the book, subtitled “Choli Kerthem,” Emden has occasion to return to his idee fixe, the abuse of Kabbalah by the crypto-Sabbatians of the day, namely “[Moses David] Podheitser and Ze'ev [Wolf] Eybeschützer.” (Wolf was the younger son of R. Jonathan Eybeschütz, who presented himself as a Sabbatian prophet; Podheitser, was a close associate of Eybeschütz in Hamburg.) Though “certainly Chochmath Ha’Emeth [Kabbalah] is the soul of the Torah,” unfortunately it has been infested by “snakes and scorpions,” followers of Shabbetai Tzevi (f.23). See G. Scholem, Kabbalah (1974), pp. 282, 406