(The SHeLa”H HaKodosh). Shnei Luchoth HaBrith. With Vavei Ha’Amudim by the author’s son, Shabthai Sheftel.

HOROWITZ, ISAIAH BEN ABRAHAM HALEVI.

Immanuel Benveniste

Amsterdam

1648-49

FIRST EDITION. Divisional title-page for Vavei Ha’Amudim.

Vinograd Amsterdam 163; Fuks 223.

The Rare First Edition. A native of Prague, R. Isaiah Halevi Horowitz (1565? -1630) settled in Jerusalem in 1621, where he was appointed Rabbi of the Aschkenazic Community of the city and where he availed himself of the esoteric teachings of R. Isaac Luria and his disciples. These kabbalistic teachings were duly incorporated into this, his magnum opus, the Shnei Luchoth HaBrith. Part Halachic code and part Kabbalistic treatise, the Shnei Luchoth Habrith exerted great influence upon the Aschkenazi Jewish world and helped more than any other work to introduce the Kabbalah into daily religious life. “Its expressive power and rich content made it a classic” G. Scholem, Kabbbalah (1974) p. 195. The SHela”H HaKadosh was the source for many of the fundamental teachings of the early Chassidic Movement.