Ha-Nephesh ha-Chachamah [“The Wise Soul”: Kabbalistic discourses on the fate awaiting the soul after death and the mystical significance of the commandments; includes commentaries of R. Moses de Leon and R. Joseph Gikatilia to the Passover Hagadah]

Moses ben Shem Tov de Leon

Konrad Waldkirch

Basle

1608

FIRST EDITION. Titile within typographical border

Vinograd, Basle 231; Prijs, Basle 194

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 Ha-Nephesh ha-Chachamah, to ascertain whether there is any overlap with the Zohar in terms of style, language and terminology, as well as to determine whether the two kabbalistic systems are identical or divergent. See Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1967), pp. 159-204. Ha-Nephesh ha-Chachamah was written in 1290 by De Leon for his pupil Jacob, whom Isaac of Acre met after De Leon’s death. According to Scholem, the Basle edition of Nephesh ha-Chachamah contains numerous addenda from a work by a contemporary Spanish kabbalist. See EJ, Vol. XII, cols. 425-6