Tomer Devorah. ["The Date Palm of Deborah" - Kabbalistic ethics]

CORDOVERO, MOSES.

Giovanni di Gara

Venice

1589

FIRST EDITION

Vinograd, Venice 738; Mehlman 986

RARE FIRST EDITION OF A FUNDAMENTAL KABBALISTIC WORK. R. Moses Cordovero (RaMa"K) (1522-1570), the great systematizer of Kabbalah, lays here the foundations for Kabbalistic ethical literature. Pivoting on the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy (Micah 7:18-20), the work provides instruction how one may spiritually identify with each of the Ten Sefiroth. Despite its Kabbalistic underpinnings, Tomer Devorah became a widely consulted ethical work, the study of which was recommended by R. Israel Salanter, founder of the Mussar movement, whose famous letter on the importance of Mussar was published in the Koenigsberg 1858 edition of Tomer Devorah