HaNephesh HaChochmah [Kabbalistic discourses on the fate awaiting the soul after death and the mystical significance of the precepts]. Also includes commentaries by R. Moses de Leon and R. Joseph Gikatilla to the Passover Hagadah.

Estimate

$1,000–$1,500

Hammer price

Not recorded

Historical auction record. Hammer prices exclude buyer’s premium and taxes.

author

MOSES BEN SHEM TOV DE LEON.

printer

Konrad Waldkirch

Place

Basle

Publication

1608

Description

FIRST EDITION. Title within typographical border. Signatures on title including Izaak b. Elozor-Lazi Berlin.

references

Vinograd, Basle 231.

summary

Moses de Leon of Guadalajara (c. 1240-1305) was one of the greatest Spanish kabbalists of his day, indeed scholars have attributed to him - rather than to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, the putative author - the composition of the Zohar. Painstaking comparisons have been made of de Leon’s other works, such as our HaNephesh HaChochmah, to ascertain whether there is overlap with the Zohar in terms of style, language and terminology, as well as to determine whether the two Kabbalistic systems are divergent or not. See G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1967) pp. 159-204 and EJ, Vol. XII cols. 425-6.

ff. (64). Wormed and stained. Later vellum-backed boards, Valmadonna-custom gilt title on spine. 4to.

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