6 6 CHANIN, YEHUDAH BEN YAAKOV. Sepher Ha’Or [Kabbalistic treatise on the Hebrew letters, vowels and cantillation points]. Manuscript in Hebrew, written in a semi-cursive Sephardic hand, on paper. Former owners’ signatures and stamps including Levi Toledano, Masoud Azur and Shmuel Chaim Haroush of Meknes. At end: “This composition is complete… which I wrote for R. Chovav.” Watermarks similar to those found in the years 1609-50 (see Heawood, Watermarks (1950) nos. 3642-65). ff. 38. Marginal staining. Modern boards. Sm. 4to. (Morocco), 17th century. $5000 - $7000 ❧ AN UNPUBLISHED KABBALISTIC TREATISE composed by an important Moroccan Kabbalist. The work conceptually examines the Hebrew alphabet based upon mystical thought. A poem by the author is present on the final leaf. Manuscript notations on the margins throughout signed Pei Teth (Pinchas Toledano?) who refers to “my book Shalheveth Yah Yikra” in several places (7a). One of the great Kabbalists of Morocco and Algeria, R. Yehudah ben Ya’akov ibn Chanin (c.1540-1617) lived in the village of Akka (south-western Morocco) and was part of a Kabbalistic fellowship headed by Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon Elbaz, author of Heichal HaKodesh and a contemporary of the Ar’i za’l. A nephew of R. Yehudah was the kabbalist R. Ya’akov Ifergan, author of Perach Shushan who cites his uncle several times. R. Yehudah authored several works, notably Eitz Chaim and Minchath Yehudah. Although other manuscripts of the present work are extant, this copy was almost certainly written in the author’s lifetime, or shortly following his demise. 7 CORDOVERO, MOSHE (RaMa”K). Ohr Ne’erav [treatise on the importance of Kabbalah]. Manuscript in Hebrew, written in an Aschkenazic cursive hand, on paper. Censors’ signatures on first leaf and again on f. 32b]. An illustration of the Sefiroth appears on f. 23b. ff. (39). Repair to opening and closing leaf, few light stains. Later blind-tooled sheep, upper cover detached. Sm. 4to. Lodi, (Lombardy, Italy), 1585. $5000 - $7000 ❧ A neat manuscript of a classic Kabbalistic text written two years before the appearance of the first printed edition (Venice, 1587). There are slight variations to the printed version, including a table of contents that is only found in the present manuscript. Leader of the mystical school of 16th-century Safed, R. Moshe Cordovero (1522–70) was a central figure in the historical development of the Kabbalah to which his encyclopedic works were a vital element. Ohr Ne’erav is a justification of and insistence upon the importance of Kabbalistic study and is an introduction to the mystical methods explicated in the author’s earlier Pardes Rimonim. Lot 6 Lot 7