Apiryon Shlomo [Kabbalah]

SASSON, ABRAHAM.

Zanettti

Venice

1608

Vinograd, Venice 1036.

The chapters on different kabbalistic topics are entitled “Erez” (cedar tree) which the author notes is “Raza” (secret) spelled backwards. In the final chapter, entitled “Erez Matzmiach Yeshuah” (ff. 31-2) he predicts (based upon scriptural and kabbalistic sources) that the year of salvation (Shnath Geulah) will be forty years later (forty is the numerical equivalent of the word “Goel” - Savior) in 1648-49, when the world will be repaired (Tikun Olam) and the lost tribes of Israel will return to their homeland. Instead, those were the years of the infamous persecutions and massacres perpetrated by the Cossacks under the leadership of Bogdan Chmielnicki which resulted in the death of some two hundred thousand Jews and the plunder of hundreds of communities.