LUZZATTO, SAMUEL DAVID. Viku’ach al Hochmath HaKabbalah Ve’al Kadmuth Sepher HaZohar VeKadmuth HaNekudoth VehaTe’amim / Dialogues sur la Kabbale et le Zohar et sur l’Antiquité de la Ponctuation et de l’Accentuation.

(KABBALAH)

J.B. Seitz

Gorice

1852

FIRST EDITION. Hebrew text with French dedication to G.I. Ascoli. The Mayer Sulzberger copy.

Vinograd, Gorizia 5

Samuel David Luzzatto (1800-1865) was a uniquely Italian mixture of pious adherence to religious tradition and daring modern scholarship. The tension between these two is discerned in the present work, a dialogue between “the Guest” (a Polish interloper) and “the Author.” The views of the Guest, which represent an assault on the age of the Kabbalah, calling into question its faithfulness to received rabbinic tradition - are actually those of Luzzatto himself.