Abraham Axelrod of Cologne. Kether Shem Tov [mystical philosophy].

(KABBALAH).

Proops

Amsterdam

1816

First edition. Four pages of Prenumeranten. The Moses Gaster copy with his signature on title-page.

Vinograd, Amsterdam 2439.

A 13th century kabbalist and disciple of R. Eleazar b. Judah of Worms, R. Abraham Axelrod of Cologne immigrated to Spain where he met Solomon b. Abraham Adret who tells of the formers’ extraordinary oratorical gifts and the excellent content of his sermons (see Responsa no. 548). The present treatise concerns the Tetragrammaton, in which the author sought to achieve a synthesis between the mysticism of the Jewish pietists in Germany based on combinations of letters and numbers, and the Kabbalah of the Sefirot (with which R. Abraham had become acquainted in Spain). His text is composed of a short summary of his system and represents a kind of cosmological symbolism relying upon the conclusion provided by Abraham ibn Ezra in his Sefer HaShem, as well as on the statements of the kabbalists R. Ezra and R. Azriel. (See Gershom Scholem in EJ).