Sepher Derech Etz Chaim with glosses of Kabbalists throughout ages; some unknown from other sources. * Appended “Kelalei Ma’alei Shimsha,” an orderly presentation of the kelalim (principles) of Rabbi Shalom Shar’abi (RaSHaSH)

UNIQUE ANTHOLOGY OF COMMENTARIES TO VITAL’S ETZ CHAIM This manuscript includes Gates 26-50 of the “Bible of Lurianic Kabbalah,” Etz Chaim (roughly the equivalent of Part Two of the most recent printing of Etz Chaim, Brandwein ed. [Jerusalem, 1988]). Joseph Avivi, researcher of Kabbalah, calls our manuscript, “a virtual encyclopedia of comments by Kabbalists over the ages.” Included in this roster are: Rabbis Samuel Vital, Jacob Tzemach, Menachem de Lonzano, Meir Poppers, Nathan Shapiro, Moses Zacuto, Benjamin Cohen, Shalom Shar’abi, Abraham Miranda, Jacob Vilna, Yedidyah Abulafia, Joseph Sadboun, and Joseph Cohen. The comments of the above occur in other manuscripts as well. Note however, that the commentaries of Abraham Miranda, Jacob Vilna, Yedidyah Abulafia, Joseph Cohen and Joseph Sadboun have never been published. Jacob Vilna of Safed, co-editor of Meir Popper’s kabbalistic encyclopedia, Me’orei ‘Or (Frankfurt a/Main, 1709) was considered the greatest authority on Kabbalah in his day. According to the latest research, both Jacob Vilna and Abraham Miranda of Salonika, had decidedly Sabbatian proclivities, harboring the secret belief in the Messiahship of Shabbetai Zevi. See Meir Benayahu, “Rabbi Ya’akov Vilna u-beno ve-yachaseihem le-Shabta’uth,” Yerushalayim I (1953), pp. 203-214; idem, The Shabbatean Movement in Greece, pp. 203-4, 220-1, 403-8; Bezalel Naor, Post-Sabbatian Sabbatianism (1999), pp. 187-188. In addition to these known commentaries, our manuscript contains hitherto unknown commentaries of: R. Joseph Zamiro, David Ben Isou, Joseph Erikes. Rabbi Joseph Zamiro (d. 1843) was one of the great rabbis of Jerusalem at the beginning of the nineteenth century. His collection of halachic responsa, Hon Yoseph, was published in Livorno in 1828. See A.L. Frumkin, Toldoth Chachmei Yerushalayim, Part III, pp. 198-199. Until now, it was not known that Zamiro was an adept of the Kabbalah. The anonymous treatise, “Ma’alei Shimsha”—a summation of the system of the esteemed kabbalist R. Shalom Shar’abi (1720-1777), head of Beth El, the kabbalist yeshivah of Jerusalem—is known to exist in but one other manuscript, presently in the Ben Zevi Institute, no. 2230. The title derives from the acrostic of Sharabi’s name, SHeMeSH (Shalom Mizrachi Shar’abi). Ma’alei Shimsha has never been published. See EJ, Vol. XIV, cols. 1307-8