Eiduth BeYa’akov [Kabbalah]

TZEMACH, YA’AKOV BEN CHAIM.

Near East

18th century

Manuscript in Hebrew, written in an exceptionally neat, semi-cursive Sephardic hand on thick paper.

A beautifully composed manuscript of two important Kabbalistic treatises, each based upon the writings of R. Chaim Vital and arranged by R. Ya’akov Zemach, entitled: Otzroth Chaim and Adam Yashar, under the general title of Eiduth BeYa’akov. R. Ya’akov Tzemach (c.1580-1667) was the foremost student of R. Shmuel Vital (son of R. Chaim). He was born in Lisbon and moved to Salonika where he returned to live a fully Jewish life. His studies took him to Safed and then Damascus where he studied under R. Shmuel Vital. See G. Scholem, On the Life of the Kabbalist Jacob Zemach and his Literary Activities in: in Kiryat Sepher Vol. 26, (1950) pp. 185-94. For a detailed discussion of this particular text, see Y. Avivi, Kabbalath Ha’Ari (2008) Vol. II, pp. 616-20.