(RaMa”K). Tomer Devorah ["The Date Palm of Deborah" - Kabbalistic ethics].

CORDOVERO, MOSHE

Giovanni di Gara

Venice

1589

Vinograd, Venice 738.

RARE FIRST EDITION OF A FUNDAMENTAL KABBALISTIC WORK. R. Moshe Cordovero (1522-70), the great systematizer of Kabbalah, lays down here the foundations for Kabbalistic ethical literature. Pivoting on the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy (Micah 7:18-20), the work provides instruction how one may spiritually connect with each of the Ten Sefiroth. Despite its Kabbalistic underpinnings, Tomer Devorah became a widely consulted ethical work, the study of which was recommended by R. Israel Salanter, founder of the Mussar movement, whose famous letter on the importance of Mussar was published in the Koenigsberg 1858 edition of Tomer Devorah.