Tomer Devorah. With additional section “Gaon Yisrael” by R. Israel Salanter.

AUCTION 63 | Thursday, November 13th, 2014 at 1:00
Fine Judaica: Books, Manuscripts, Autograph Letters, Graphic and Ceremonial Art

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Lot 79
CORDOVERO, MOSES.

Tomer Devorah. With additional section “Gaon Yisrael” by R. Israel Salanter.

<<FIRST EDITION of Igereth HaMussar >> pp. 52. light staining, with signature and stamps of previous owners. Modern limp boards. 8vo. Vinograd, Koenigsberg 216.

Koenigsberg: (A. Rosbach) 1858

Est: $800 - $1,200
PRICE REALIZED $800
Despite Kabbalistic underpinnings, this became a widely consulted ethical work, the study of which was recommended by R. Israel Salanter the founder of the Mussar movement, whose famous letter on the importance of Mussar study is published here for the first time. This letter was republished many times under the title “Igereth HaMussar.” The publisher states here he is in fact himself a disciple of R. Israel Salanter and that this represents the first publication of any of his writings. Moshe Cordovero here laid the foundations for Kabbalistic ethical literature which proliferated in the 16th-18th centuries. Kabbalistic moralists were greatly influenced by Cordovero’s “Palm Tree of Deborah.” Each chapter of this short treatise provides instruction how to spiritually identify with each of the Ten Sefiroth.