Benjamin, Moses. Ma'aseh Rav [Kabbalistic Commentary on Fables of Rabbah bar Bar Chanah in Fifth Chapter of Talmudic Tractate Bava Bathra]

(KABBALAH)

Jonah ben Jacob (Aschkenazi)

Constantinople

1736

FIRST EDITION. Title within decorative border. Broad margined copy

Vinograd, Const. 475; Yaari, Const. 358

Rabah bar Bar Chanah has been referred to as the “Jewish Sinbad the Sailor.” His tall tales, which are not restricted to seafaring voyages but take place on dry land as well, have fascinated generations of readers. Literally hundreds of commentaries have been penned on these stories. It might be said that it is almost a pastime of rabbis to attempt to unlock the mysteries contained in those legends. Our author, R. Moses Benjamin is the first Baghdadi kabbalist of note. In his introduction he laments the fact that an earlier kabbalistic treatise of his, Sha'arei Yerushalayim, was stolen by highwayman en route to the printer. Fully two centuries later this lost manuscript surfaces in the Sassoon Library. See Ohel Dawid (1932) Vol. I, pp. 442-3 (no. 771)