Sepher Yetzirah. Im Peirush Maspik Nechmad VeNaim.

(KABBALAH).

Tzvi Hirsch b. Aryeh Leib

Koretz

1779

THE HAIM LIBERMAN COPY WITH HIS Notes . Kabbalistic diagrams on f. 24b and 31a.

Vinograd, Koretz 4; Tauber, Koretz p. 21 no. 3; Liberman, Ohel Rachel Vol. I, pp. 102-4.

There is much debate as to the identity of the author of this kabbalistic commentary. The title and colophon identify him as the author of Otzar Hashem. The late, masterful, bibliographic scholar, R. Haim Liberman (former owner of this copy) has proved that the commentary is actually a section of the kabbalistic work Shoshan Sodoth by the same author published later in Koretz in 1784. According to Liberman, this commentary contains Sodoth (“secrets”) no. 464-656 from Shoshan Sodoth. Although the title page of that work identifies the author as a disciple of Nachmanides, the consensus based upon manuscripts (in Oxford, Paris and YIVO) is that the author is R. Moshe ben Yaakov of Kiev, also known as R. Moshe HaGoleh (1449-1520). The present copy contains Liberman’s penciled notations indicating by number which paragraphs correspond to which secret in Shoshan Sodoth. In his article in Ohel Rachel, Liberman states that he compared the YIVO manuscript to this commentary and found an unpublished extra passage pertaining to the Sepher Yetzirah. See H. Liberman, Ohel Rachel Vol. I, pp. 93-104 especially n. 5.