Pirkei Shirah. With Kabbalistic commentaries Siach Yitzchak and Sha’ar Shimon by the brothers, Yitzchak and Shimon Wolf, sons of Meir Nikolsburg of Prague
AUCTION 50 |
Thursday, February 24th,
2011 at 1:00
Fine Judaica: Hebrew Printed Books, Manuscripts, Graphic & Ceremonial Art Including: The Alfonso Cassuto Collection of Iberian Art
Lot 157
(KABBALAH)
Pirkei Shirah. With Kabbalistic commentaries Siach Yitzchak and Sha’ar Shimon by the brothers, Yitzchak and Shimon Wolf, sons of Meir Nikolsburg of Prague
Venice: Bragadin 1664
Est: $500 - $700
PRICE REALIZED $600
Pirkei Shirah is an ancient composition thought to be part of the corpus of 2nd-century Hechalot Literature. In Perek Shirah each member of the Animal Kingdom is assigned a verse from the Bible which it utters in praise of the Creator. See EJ, Vol. XIII, cols. 273-5.
In the approbations to this edition, the rabbis of Venice, Verona and Mantua have only superlative praise for the two brothers who co-authored the work. R. Moses Zacuto, the leading contemporary Italian kabbalist, was especially effusive in his praise, titling R. Yitzchak, “sover ha-razim...mekubbal, he-chasid ("explainer of secrets...the pious kabbalist).”
In the commentary Sha’ar Shimon (f.14r.) there is a discussion of the holy name “Ke-DaT” written on the forehead of Messiah, son of David. The origin of this motif is R. Samson of Ostropolia, martyred in the Chmielnicki massacres of 1648. See Y. Liebes, "Mysticism and Reality" in: Twersky and Septimus (eds.) Jewish Thought in the Seventeenth Century (1987) p. 226