SHeLa”H ha-Kadosh). Kitzur Shnei Luchoth ha-Berith. [Abridged version of Isaiah Horowitz’s treatise]. Prepared by JECHIEL MICHEL EPSTEIN

HOROWITZ, ISAIAH

Israel ben Moses Shalit

Offenbach

1724

Title within architectural columns, upon whose pedestal stand Moses the Law-Giver and Aaron the High-Priest, while aloft two cherubs present a Zodiac surrounding Planet Earth

Vinograd, Offenbach 72

Part legal code and part Kabbalistic treatise, the Shnei Luchoth ha-Berith exerted great influence upon the life of the Jews of Eastern Europe and, more than any other book, helped to introduce the Kabbalah into daily religious life. The editor of this abbreviated version, Jechiel Michel Epstein, supposedly harbored crypto-Sabbatian beliefs. Thus, the stressed words “Mashiach ha-amiti” [the True Messiah] and “Yemoth ha-Mashiach” [the Days of Messiah] at the conclusion to the Introduction, both have the numerical value of 814, which so happens to be the numerical equivalent of “Shabtai Tzevi.” See B. Naor, Post-Sabbatian Sabbatianism (1999), pp.46-48