Sha’arei Rachamim [selected prayers, with mystical meditations].

(LITURGY).

Salonika

1741

Edited by Benjamin Kimchi. ff. (7), 146. * Bound with: Sha’arei Ratzon [Passover Hagadah]. With Kabbalistic commentary by Chaim ben Abraham HaKohen of Aleppo. ff. 56. Two important Kabbalistic works bound in one volume. Both FIRST EDITIONS. Titles within architectural arch. Wide margins. With marginal notations.

Vinograd, Salonika 243 and 244.

The very first Sidur according to the custom of R. Yitzchak Luria (Nusach Ari). Bound with: The very first Kabbalistic Hagadah. The rise of the Kabbalah of the Ar’i led many in Kabbalistic circles to compile prayer-books containing specialized Lurianic meditations and esoteric rites. These texts circulated in manuscript among differing regional circles of Kabbalists. The very first printed Lurianic prayer-book was this Sha’arei Rachamim which accords to Sephardic rite. The Ar’i himself did not leave behind any prescribed prayer-book, leaving his followers to compile their own works based on his teachings. This took place in the Ashkenazic and Sephardic spheres alike. Thus Chabad’s ‘Siddur Tehilath Hashem’ and the prayer-book issued by R. Sar Shalom Sharabi of Jerusalem, are both heralded as Nusach Ari.