Klei Yakar

EPHRAIM (SOLOMON) OF LUNTSCHYTZ.

Moshe Katz

Prague

1608

Second edition. Title within architectural arch flanked by grotesques with printer’s device (Yaari, Printer’s Marks no. 37). Title-page with inscription and signature of the prominent Frankfurt Kabbalist R. David ben R. Nathan Grünhut of Heimerdingen (see below).

Vinograd, Prague 156.

The author (1550-1619) studied under the tutelage of R. Solomon Luria (MaHaRSHa”L) and later rose to serve as Chief Justice of the rabbinical court of Prague. He is best known for this Klei Yakar (“Precious Vessel”), a popular homiletic commentary to the Pentateuch included in most recent editions of the Biblia Rabbinica. R. David Grünhut (d. 1723), a native of Frankfurt a/Main, was celebrated as a Talmudist, grammarian and Kabbalist. In 1682, he was embroiled in controversy with the Frankfurt rabbinate due to his intention to publish the Sepher HaGilgulim (Book of Reincarnations) by R. Chaim Vital, the major disciple of R. Isaac Luria. After the debacle of pseudo-Messiah Shabthai Tzvi, the German rabbis were opposed to the publication of such kabbalistic works. See M. Horovitz, Frankfurter Rabbinen (1972), pp. 92-3; N.Z. Friedmann, Otzar Harabanim 4746; EJ, Vol. VII, cols. 946-47.