Ilan Hakodosh. A finely composed and very lengthy Sefirot-Tree. Incorporating numerous Kabbalistic devices, charts and other displays.
AUCTION 58 |
Thursday, May 02nd,
2013 at 1:00
Fine Judaica: Printed Books, Manuscripts and Autograph Letters
Lot 343
(AMULET)
Ilan Hakodosh. A finely composed and very lengthy Sefirot-Tree. Incorporating numerous Kabbalistic devices, charts and other displays.
Near East: circa 1900
Est: $800 - $1,200
PRICE REALIZED $2,900
This lengthy Ilan concludes with the many benefits obtained from possessing it and uncommon instructions for its use: “This Holy Tree is perfect for all purposes - for finding favor, for success, for protection against the evil eye, for a woman undergoing difficult child-birth, to ward off demons, as protection against the plague… It should be housed in a pure silver case and hung [on the person].”
Over the ages, attempts were made by various kabbalists to render into diagram-form the teachings of the Kabbalah concerning the structure of the spiritual universe. Known as the Ilan Hagadol (“great tree”) or Ilan Hakadosh (“holy tree”) or simply as the Ilan, this arrangement would provide the student of the esoteric lore a clearer notion of the exact layout of this highly complex system as represented by Lurianic cosmogony.
This particular graphic representation of Lurianic doctrine is ascribed on the fourth line to ‘R”M’ - R. Meir Hakohen Poppers (d. 1662), final editor of the Lurianic writings, later published in Warsaw in 1864 as the Ilan Hagadol. For a somewhat different Aschkenazic example, see EJ, Vol. XIV col. 1105.