Vital, Chaim. Sha’arei Kedushah [Kabbalistic ethical values]. * Bound with: Sepher Eilim LeTruphah [letters of moral instruction by Moses Nachmanides and Elijah, Gaon of Vilna]

The Jews of Aleppo (Arabic, Haleb) referred to their city by the Biblical name of “Aram Tzovah.” This volume contains the first two Hebrew books printed in this ancient Jewish community of Northern Syria. The printer, Elijah Sasson was sent by his father to Italy to learn the art of printing and the rabbinic type he uses here is in fact very similar to that used by the Livornese Hebrew presses. One notes that the fourth and final gate of the Sha’arei Kedushah is truncated. The printer demurs: ”This section is unprinted. Since it consists of [Divine] Names and hidden mysteries, it would be unlawful to commit it to print” (f. 48v.) The text of the letter of the Vilna Gaon differs in many places from the standard European edition