Amaroth Tehoroth [Kabbalah]. With commentary “Yad Yehudah” by Judah Leib ben Simon

MENACHEM AZARIAH OF FANO.

Vorst

Frankfurt a/Main

1698

First Edition. Title within fine engraved border including arches and cherubs aloft. Tailpieces

Vinograd, Frankfurt a/Main 148

Part One of Amaroth Tehoroth, a compendium of five kabbalistic treatises by R. Menachem Azariah (RM”A) of Fano: Ma’amar Hikkur Din, Ma’amar Em Kol Hai, Ma’amar ha-Middoth, Ma’amar Olam Katan, and Ma’amar ha-Ittim. Today, this work is generally known by the title Asarah Ma’amaroth (“Ten Treatises” - although the other five treatises are missing). There are other commentaries on RM”A’s work, but Yad Yehudah remains the standard commentary. R. Menachem Azariah (1548-1620), of a well-to-do banking family in Bologna, Italy, was first a follower of the Cordoveran system of kabbalah but afterward, under the influence of an elusive figure, R. Israel Sarug, switched his allegiance to the Lurianic school. The propagation of Safedan kabbalah in Europe was largely due to his prolific efforts. See Robert Bonfil, “New Information on Rabbi Menahem Azariah da Fano and his Age” (Hebrew) in: Studies in the History of Jewish Society in the Middle Ages and in the Modern Period [Jacob Katz Festschrift] (Jerusalem, 1980), pp. 98-135; idem, “Halakhah, kabbalah and society: some insights into Rabbi Menahem Azariah da Fano’s inner world” in: Twersky and Septimus eds., Jewish Thought in the Seventeenth Century (Cambridge, MA, 1987)