(of Prague). Vayakhel Moshe [Kabbalah].

GRAF, MOSHE

Moshe ben Simchah Bunim

Dessau

1698

FIRST EDITION. Few Kabbalistic text illustrations and tables. The Israel Mehlman copy (who notes in pencil: “Extremely rare!”).

Vinograd, Dessau 27.

The introduction contains a lengthy exposition on the importance of studying Kabbalah and berates the “fools who oppose its study.” The book contains significant approbations and an historically important introduction. The Author was one of the great Aschkenazi Kabbalists of his time. He gained particular renown due to his public exorcism of a Dybbuk in Nikolsburg in 1696 upon the authority of R. David Oppenheim. The event is described in fascinating detail in an appendix to the first edition of R. Graf’s Zera Kodesh (not included in subsequent editions). See Kestenbaum & Company, Important Hebrew Printed Books & Manuscripts from the Library of the London Beth Din, Sale 11, Lot 42.