Sidur RaSHa”SH [Prayerbook with Kavanoth, or kabbalistic meditations, of R. Shalom Sharabi]

(CHASSIDISM)

Jerusalem

1881

Chatzoth u-Birkath ha-Shachar [Midnight Vigil and Morning Blessings]. Manuscript in Hebrew. Colophon “Nathan ben Joseph, Tuesday, 28th Menachem Av, 1881, Jerusalem.” There precedes the colophon a lengthy poem by the scribe with the acrostic “Mimeni Nathan” [From me, Nathan]. Bound in contemporary emerald crushed morocco, gilt extra, cartouche in center gilt-tooled “David ba-Harav R. Elazar Menachem Shlit”a.”

Grand Rabbi Dovid Biderman of Lelov - his personal manuscript copy of an importnt Kabbalistic prayer book. Rabbi David Biderman (1844-1918), accompanied hs father R. Elazar Menachem and grandfather R. Moses of Lelov to the Holy Land in 1851. The Rebbe of Lelov was the first Chassidic Leader to take up residence in Jerusalem. Upon the death of his father in 1883, R. David assumed leadership of the Lelover Chassidim. He was one of the founders of the Talmud Torah Chayei Olam and of the Batei Warsaw neighborhood. He was buried on the Mount of Olives. See Tz.M. Rabinowicz, The Encyclopedia of Hasidism (1996), p.45. The Siddur Rasha”sh contains innumerable kabbalistic meditations, many of them arranged in diagrammatic form. The prayers conducted in this manner tend to be quite lengthy, in order to provide time for the prayer leader to mentally engage all of the kavanoth or mystical intentions. Followers of these practices are known as “mekhavnim” (from the word “kavanah”) or meditators. The founder of this method of prayer, R. Shalom Sharabi (1720-1777), a native of Yemen, led the kabbalistic conventicle known as “Beth El” in Jerusalem. He was the teacher of the great Sephardic luminary R. Chaim Joseph David Azulai (Chid”a). See EJ, Vol. XIV, cols. 1307-8