Sha’arei Zion [select prayers with mystical meditations]

HANOVER, NATHAN NATA.

Yitzchak Katz

Wilhermsdorf

1690

Hebrew with portions in Judeo-German.

Vinograd, Wilhermsdorf 47.

Nathan Nata Hanover (d. 1683), a native of Volhynia, survived the infamous Chmelnicki massacres of 1648-9 and recorded the atrocities in his woeful chronicle “Yeven Metzulah” (Venice, 1653). In Italy, where he sought refuge, he made the acquaintance of the great Kabbalists of the time: Moses Zacuto, Hayyim Cohen, Nathan Spira, and Benjamin Halevi. In the present work, Sha’arei Zion (first ed. 1662), Hanover recorded for posterity the Lurianic traditions he imbibed from these men, in turn, his work served as a conduit for the Kabbalistic traditions and thus became immensely popular.