NECHUNYAH BEN HAKANEH (Attributed to). Sepher ha-Kaneh / Sepher ha-Peli’ah [Mystical commentary to pericope of Bereishith]

First Edition of Pseudonymous Kabbalistic Work. In the introduction, the author calls himself “Elkanah son of Yeroham son of Avigdor.” For many years, the book was attributed to R. Avigdor Kara of Prague. Contemporary scholarly opinion tends to regard Sepher ha-Kaneh as the composition of an anonymous Byzantine author. This overturns the earlier belief of Profs. Baer and Netanyahu that Sepher ha-Kaneh was composed in Spain. See B. Netanyahu, “Zeman chiburam shel siphrei ‘Hakaneh’ ve-’Ha-Peli’ah’” in Sepher ha-Yovel li-Chevod Shalom Baron (Salo Baron Festschrift), Vol. III (1974), pp. 247-267; I. Ta-Shema, “Where Were the Books ha-Kaneh and Ha-Pliah Composed?” in Studies in the History of Jewish Society in the Middle Ages and in the Modern Period (Jacob Katz Festschrift) (Jerusalem, 1980), pp. 56-63. This edition bears the encomium (haskamah) of the eminent chassidic sage, R. Jacob Joseph of Ostraha (“Rav Yeivi”), disciple of R. Dov Baer, the Magid of Mezritch