(Traditionally Attributed to). Sepher Shivim Tikunei Hazohar [Kabbalah]. With commentary “Chemdath Tzvi” by Tzvi Hirsch ben Jerachmiel Chotsch of Cracow

SHIMON B”R YOCHAI

Moses Mendes Countinho

Amsterdam

1706

FIRST EDITION with commentary. Striking title within historiated woodcut architectural border framed by eight Biblical vignettes depicting Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; Moses and Aaron; David and Solomon and Elijah the Prophet (Habermann, Sha’arei Sepharim pl. 41)

Vinograd, Amsterdam 804; Fuks, Amsterdam 589

Chotsh was a preacher in Cracow, where it is speculated, he fell under the influence of the Sabbatian prophet Heschel Zoref during the latter's sojourn in that city. Noted scholars of different stripes, from the Orthodox Rabbi Reuben Margalioth to the heterodox Prof. Gershom Scholem have detected hints of Chotsh's reverence for the pseudo-Messiah Shabbetai Zevi in this otherwise unreproachable commentary to Tikkunei Zohar. See B. Naor, Post-Sabbatian Sabbatianism (1999), pp. 79-82