Sasson ben Moshe. Shemen Sasson [“Oil of Joy”: Commentary to Vital, Chaim. Etz Chaim and Shemonah She’arim]. Parts. I, II, III, IVa, V (missing Part IVb, published 1890)

(KABBALAH)

v.p.

Jerusalem

1869-1896

FIRST EDITIONS: 5 parts in 4 volumes. Part I (1869); II (1875); III (1885); IVa (1889); V (1896). Part V former property of Jerusalem Kabbalist Aaron Abraham Slotki. Slotki’s stamp on title and final page, and his signed inscription on ff. 32v. and f. 83r. In the inscription he informs us that he “bought this book in order to lend it to others worthy of studying it, 24 Tammuz, [5]669/1909”

Halevy, nos. 151, 226, 532, 675, 734; Friedberg S-1817; Scholem, Kiryath Sepher II (1925):4, p. 272

The Copy of Aschkenazic Kabbalist, Aaron Abraham Slotki. The Author, Sasson ben Moshe (Parisiado), was a member of the kabbalist circle in Jerusalem, Beth El, where mystics would employ the system of kavanoth developed by Rabbi Shalom Sharabi (Rasha”sh). Sasson’s teacher in Kabbalah was Rabbi Vidal Cuenca, a native of Salonika, Greece, who settled in Jerusalem between the years 1851-3. Gershom Scholem, refers to the six volumes of Shemen Sasson as a “gigantic and important work.” In Vol. I, 6a, the Author mentions a manuscript of Chochmath ha-Tzeruf (permutation of letters) and advertises that he will publish it at the conclusion of the present volume. Unfortunately, the promised manuscript was never published in any of the six volumes of Shemen Sasson. From the description of the manuscript, Scholem was able to surmise that the reference is to Judah Albotini’s Sulam ha-Aliyah. Scholem speculates that because of the controversial nature of the work (which is a continuation of the method of “prophetic kabbalah” of Abraham Abulafia), Chacham Sasson was deterred from committing it to print. (In other, less controversial areas, Shemen Sasson does indeed incorporate several elements culled from old manuscripts.) See G. Scholem, “Ha-Mekubal R. Abraham ben Eliezer Halevi” in Kiryath Sepher II (1925):4, p. 272; Frumkiin and Rivlin, Toldoth Chachmei Yerushalayim III (1929), pp. 306; N.Z. Friedmann, Otzar Harabanim, p. 418, S-20181B; Giora Pozielov, Chachmeihen shel Arba Arei ha-Kodesh II (2001), pp. 618-619, n. 6