Emek HaMelech.

NAPHTALI HERTZ BEN JACOB ELCHANAN.

Immanuel Benveniste

Amsterdam

1648

FIRST EDITION . Title within woodcut architectural arch. Printer’s device on title along with signature of former owner: Ya’akov Weil of Karlsruhe.

Vinograd, Amsterdam 149; Fuks, Amsterdam 222; Mehlman 1092.

A most important and comprehensively systematic works of Kabbalah. Utilizing many sources, the author primarily relied on Israel Sarug, one of the major disciples of Isaac Luria (the AR”I). The publication of the work caused some consternation among the disciples of Chaim Vital who questioned its reliability. However, Shem HaGedolim HaChadash (under the title R. Zadok Hakohen of Lublin) dismisses most of these objections (see Sepher Ha’zichronoth (Warsaw, 1929) p. 24). Despite the objections raised, the detail and clarity of the Emek HaMelech exerted profound influence on both R. Shne’or Zalman, the founder of Chabad, as well as the disciples of the Gaon of Vilna.