Eth Ketz [The Advent of the Messiah]

The author, known by the Hebrew acrostic of his name “YeCHKaM” (Yitzchak Chaim Kohen Min ha-chazanim), was one of the Paduan physician-poets who had some influence upon young Moses Chaim Luzzatto (RaMCHaL). “Min ha-Chazanim” is the Hebrew equivalent of the Italian surname “Cantarini.” See “R. Abraham Hakohen of Zante and the circle of physician-poets in Padua,” Ha-Sifrut, 26 (1978):115; M. Benayahu, Kabbalistic Writings of R. Moses Chaim Luzzatto (1979), p. 239. The book bears the haskamah (endorsement) of the Sephardic chief rabbi of Amsterdam, Solomon Aylion, as well as that of the acting Aschkenazic chief rabbi Judah Leib Hamburg. The latter writes he is temporarily the rabbi of the Aschkenazic community. His endorsement is dated 9 Shevat, 1710. In that very year R. Tzvi Aschkenazi, author “Chacham Tzvi,” was appointed chief rabbi of the Aschkenazic community of Amsterdam. Oddly enough, one of our two copies has the haskamoth on the recto of the title page, while the other has a blank there instead. Why this variant should exist makes for interesting speculation.