Likutei Hakdamoth HaKabbalah - Sepher HaDerushim.

VITAL, CHAIM

(Aleppo)

17th century

Manuscript in Hebrew on paper, primarily written in a single Sephardic rabbinic hand, with additions in Aschkenazic hands. Opening page within decorative arch in colors. Kabbalistic diagrams. Previous owner’s notations, including those by “Yehudah Leib Kahana.”

R. Chaim Vital (1542-1620) was the preeminent disciple of the Ariza”l (1534-1572) who founded the Lurianic School of Kabbalah in Safed in the late 16th-century. R. Chaim, who later relocated to Damascus, was responsible for recording for posterity the authentic teachings of his master. These sacred manuscripts he kept to himself, not allowing others access. Legend has it that other Kabbalists who were eager to avail themselves of these mystic teachings, anxiously awaited the opportunity to surreptitiously copy the manuscripts. The opportunity presented itself during a brief illness that R. Chaim Vital underwent, at which time, through the collusion of his brother R. Moses Vital, one hundred scribes pounced upon the manuscripts, each one copying a quota of six leaves. Having finished the transcription of the Lurianic corpus, the master copy was replaced to the Vital home. That having been accomplished, it next fell to scholars to arrange in some intelligible order the raw material transcribed. Several arrangements by various editors ensued (none of which record the names of the transcribers). According to G. Scholem (Kabbalah p. 445), in the year 1620 Benjamin Halevi and Elisha Guastali (Vestali) assembled three works: Sepher HaDerushim (mainly composed of material belonging to Sha’ar Hahakdamoth and other She’arim), Sepher Likutim and Sepher Kavanoth. The present manuscript follows the R. Binyamin HaLevi and R. Elisha Guastali arrangement. See Y. Avivi, Kabbalath Ha’Ari (Jerusalem 2008) Vol. I, pp. 356-8). For another perspective of the Lurianic manuscript renditions that emanated from Chaim Vital see L. Fine, Physician of the Soul, Healer of the Cosmos: Isaac Luria and his Kabbalistic Fellowship (2003) pp. 391-92.