(VITAL, CHAIM. Attributed to). Goral Kodesh ["Holy Lot": mysticism and folk healings]

AUCTION 53 | Thursday, December 08th, 2011 at 1:00

Fine Judaica: Printed Books, Manuscripts Autograph Letters & Graphic Art

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Lot 290

(KABBALAH)

(VITAL, CHAIM. Attributed to). Goral Kodesh ["Holy Lot": mysticism and folk healings]

Hebrew manuscript, cursive Oriental script on paper. pp. (104). Stained and wormed. First and final leaf remargined. Later patterned linen boards, stained. 8vo

(Yemen?): 19th-century

Est: $1,000 - $1,500

PRICE REALIZED $1,100

Attributed to R. Chaim Vital (1542-1620) this Book of Lots, divided into 256"recipes," is designed to provide a person with insight into spiritual matters, such as discovering the root of ones soul, that is, determining ones identity in previous incarnations (pars.121-122)., the final recipes (pars. 252-256) would supposedly reveal the name of the Messiah, his age, and the exact year of the Redemption. In a more prosaic vein, the book offers counsel concerning practical decisions regarding matrimony, business matters, recovering stolen property, etc. Prof. Gershom Scholem considered the attribution to Vital of Goral Kodesh ("geomancy according to the Zodiac") to be"doubtful." See EJ, Vol. XVI, col. 176. Goral Kodesh was printed several times: Jerusalem, 1863; Czernowitz, 1899; Jerusalem, 1910? See Friedberg, G-206. Prof. Moshe Hallamish described a Moroccan manuscript of Goral Kodesh written as late as the 20th century. See Ohel Hayim [Lehmann], Vol. I (Kabbalistic Mss.) (1988) K-18 (pp. 40-1)