29 63 ISAAC NATHAN BEN KALONYMOS. Meir Nathiv. FIRST EDITION. Complete with two title pages. Opening title within architectural arch. Initial word within elaborate cartouche. A wide-margined copy. Bears stamp of GRAND RABBI AVROHOM MATISYAHU FRIEDMAN of Stefanest (Botosani, Romania) and his father R. (Menachem) Nochem Friedman (a son of R. Yisrael of Rhizin). On an opening blank a Chossid has recorded the names of his family in order for the Rebbe to have them in mind during his learning. ff. (405). Light wear, outer blank corner of one leaf repaired. Contemporary lavishly blind-tooled vellum over thick wooden boards, brass bosses on all corners, twin clasps (repaired) and hinges, with Valmadonna-custom gilt-titling on spine. Tall folio. [Vinograd, Venice 93.] Venice, Daniel Bomberg, 1524. $1500 - $2500 ❧ FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST HEBREW CONCORDANCE TO THE BIBLE. The author prepared this work to assist Jews engaged in polemical debate with Christians. The text is ordered according to the roots and stems of the words, and the Biblical Books are arranged according to the order of the Vulgate. 64 ISSACHAR BAER BEN PETHACHIAH MOSHE OF KREMENETZ. Pithchei Ya-h [Kabbalah]. FIRST EDITION. Title-page serves as introduction. Illustration featuring tree of the Ten Sephiroth on f. 10v. ff. (16). Lightly browned, two small worm- holes through first three leaves. Bound in Valmadonna-custom blind-tooled maroon morocco, spine in compartments and titled in gilt. Sm. 4to. [Vinograd, Prague 181.] (Prague), Gershom ben Bezalel Katz, 1609. $2000 - $3000 ❧ RARE. R. Yissachar Baer of Kremenetz (d. before 1648) was one of the first Aschkenazi Jews to compose Kabbalistic works in the early-modern era. The present text is an introduction to the fundamentals of Cordoverian Kabbalah as set forth in the fundamental text “Pardess Rimonim.” The author writes in his introduction that in addition to being named for his father (Petachiah), the work is also an opening (Petach) leading from the threshold to the Inner Chamber of God (Ya-h). See Andrea Gondos, Kabbalah in Print: Literary Strategies of Popular Mysticism in Early Modernity (doctoral dissertation, Concordia University, 2013) pp. 209-. 65 ISSACHAR BAER BEN PETHACHIAH MOSHE OF KREMENETZ. Yesh Sachar [Halachic Code based upon the Zohar]. FIRST EDITION. Title within typographical border. THE R. ABRAHAM JOSEPH SOLOMON GRAZIANO (ISH GE’R) COPY with his signature on title. ff. 79. Browned, signed by censors at end. Bound in Valmadonna-custom blind-tooled maroon morocco, spine in compartments and titled in gilt. Sm. 4to. [Vinograd, Prague 170.] Prague, Gershom ben Bezalel Katz, 1609. $3000 - $4000 ❧ Focuses upon the role Kabbalah plays in determining mainstream Halachic practice - a subject that has been debated for centuries. As opposed to philosophy, seen by many as the Zohar’s opposite, Kabbalah is on the one hand esoteric and thus not for the masses, yet intrinsically, it takes Halachic positions based upon mainstream practice which is of course common to all. Lot 65 Lot 64 Lot 63