SHeLa”H ha-Kadosh). Kitzur Shnei Luchoth ha-Berith. [Abridged version of Isaiah Horowitz’s treatise]. Prepared by JECHIEL MICHEL EPSTEIN

AUCTION 34 | Tuesday, September 12th, 2006 at 1:00

Exemplary Hebrew Books: The Library of Joseph Gradenwitz, Esq.

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Lot 65

HOROWITZ, ISAIAH

SHeLa”H ha-Kadosh). Kitzur Shnei Luchoth ha-Berith. [Abridged version of Isaiah Horowitz’s treatise]. Prepared by JECHIEL MICHEL EPSTEIN

Title within architectural columns, upon whose pedestal stand Moses the Law-Giver and Aaron the High-Priest, while aloft two cherubs present a Zodiac surrounding Planet Earth ff. 82. Misbound. Browned and trimmed with some loss. Contemporary marbled boards. Sm. 4to Vinograd, Offenbach 72

Offenbach: Israel ben Moses Shalit 1724

Est: $200 - $300

PRICE REALIZED $150

Part legal code and part Kabbalistic treatise, the Shnei Luchoth ha-Berith exerted great influence upon the life of the Jews of Eastern Europe and, more than any other book, helped to introduce the Kabbalah into daily religious life. The editor of this abbreviated version, Jechiel Michel Epstein, supposedly harbored crypto-Sabbatian beliefs. Thus, the stressed words “Mashiach ha-amiti” [the True Messiah] and “Yemoth ha-Mashiach” [the Days of Messiah] at the conclusion to the Introduction, both have the numerical value of 814, which so happens to be the numerical equivalent of “Shabtai Tzevi.” See B. Naor, Post-Sabbatian Sabbatianism (1999), pp.46-48