Seder Avodah [Rite for Day of Atonement in the Jerusalem Temple with anonymous commentary and kabbalistic meditations]. Manuscript on paper

(LITURGY)

1847

Scattered throughout the manuscript are erudite marginalia in a Sephardic script

According to the colophon on the final page, our manuscript was completed by “Ish It”i, S.T” in the year 5607/1847. The initials S.T. are often placed by Sephardim after their signature. (Some say the initials stand for “Sephardi Tahor” (pure Sephardi), but most likely they signify Sofo Tov (may he have a good end.) “Ish Iti” (with a teth as opposed to tav) is a clever play on the words in Leviticus 16:21. The “Ish Iti” (appointed man) was the priest who would convey the scapegoat to the escarpment of Azazel. This ritual was an integral part of the Seder HaAvodah, the rite of the Day of Atonement as practiced in the Temple of Jerusalem. In this instance, “Ish Iti” means simply “a man of the pen” (from the Hebrew word for pen, “et”). The kavanoth, or mystical meditations, would seem to conform to the system of RaSHa”SH, acronym of R. Shalom Sharabi (1720-1777), whose basis is R. Chayim Vital’s Peri Etz Chayim, Sha’ar Yom ha-Kippurim, chap. 4, but greatly expanded