Ranu LeYa’akov Simchah [Kabbalah]

TZEMACH, YA’AKOV BEN CHAIM.

Lemberg

1811

Manuscript in Hebrew, written in a fine rabbinic hand, on paper. Attractively designed pen-and-ink title-page. From the library of RABBI NACHUM DOV-BER FRIEDMAN OF SADIGUR, with his two alternating stamps on title-page.

This work contains the weekly teachings delivered by R. Shmuel Vital in Damascus on Friday and Shabbath, as heard by R. Ya’akov Tzemech. Portions only have been incorporated into other works and published by Ahavath Shalom under the title of Olath Tamid Hashalem (1997). The treatise as a whole remains unpublished . From a Marrano background, R. Ya’akov Tzemach (c. 1580-1667) was born in Lisbon and moved to Salonika where he returned to live a fully Jewish life. His studies took him to Damascus and to Safed where he became the foremost student of R. Shmuel Vital (son of R. Chaim). R. Ya’akov Tzemach’s works are most important due to his citations of contemporary Kabbalists and his influence in developing the literary consolidation within Lurianic Kabbalah.