Sha’arei Zion [Collection of Kabbalistic Prayers]

HANOVER, NATHAN NATA

Uri Feivis ben Aaron Halevi

Amsterdam

1671

Hebrew and Judeo-German. Title in architectural columns. Scattered scholarly marginalia in an Aschkenazic hand that contain references to Chaim Vital and Nathan Spira’s works, as well as some unreferenced notes. (See eg. ff. 4r., 34v., 42v., 51v.). At the end, there has been added a manuscript leaf which is transcribed from the conclusion of R. Menachem Azariah of Fano’s Tziv’oth Hashem. (Cf. Ma’amrei RaMA mi-Fano II (Jerusalem, 1997) pp. 388, 390-391)

Vinograd, Amsterdam 395; EJ, Vol. VII, col. 1274 (facs. of title)

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: the Italian Moses Zacuto, and the Eretz Israelis, Hayyim Cohen, Nathan Spira, and Benjamin Halevi. In the present work, Sha’arei Zion, Hanover recorded for posterity the Lurianic traditions he imbibed from these men. In turn, his work served as a conduit for the kabbalistic traditions. According to the colophon, at the time of this printing, Hanover had already become rabbi of Jassy, Walachia (today Rumania).