Lot : 55

Shaarei Orah with First Edition of the Kabbalistic Commentary by Rabbi Matasya Delacart

Cracow, 1600

Start price: $2,000

Est. Price: $3,000 - $5,000

Shaarei Orah with First Edition of the Kabbalistic Commentary by Rabbi Matasya Delacart

Cracow, 1600

Kabbalah Classic

Sefer Shaarei Orah fundamental kabbalistic work by Spanish kabbalist Rabbi Yosef Gikatilla with commentary by the revered kabbalist Rabbi Matasya Delacart.

First edition of this important commentary

The famed commentator Rabbi Matasya Delacart was one of the early Polish kabbalists and the Rebbi of Rabbi Mordechai Yaffe, the Levush, who learned by him the wisdom of kabbalah. In his introduction to Levush Even Yekara , the Levush describes his Rebbi “Among the greatest of the latter kabbalists, leader of Rabbanim.”

Shaarei Orah, which explains the essence of the Ten Sephiros and Holy Names in exceptional clarity, is regarded as the primary and fundamental work for any learner beginning the study of kabbalah. This masterpiece was authored over 750 years ago, and it is apparently the very first kabbalistic sefer compiled after the revelation of the Zohar Hakadosh.

Gedolei Yisrael and tzaddikim throughout the ages extolled the sefer Shaarei Orah, recommending it as the ideal initiation into the study of kabbalah. The Michtav Sofer recounted that his father, the Chasam Sofer, instructed him in the event he shall begin to study kabbala he should cling to the sefer Shaarei Orah. The same was repeated in the name of Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin.

The printer’s emblem bearing the signature stamp of the Jewish printer Yitzchak of Prosnitz, a ram whose horns are caught in the bush at the time of akeidas Yitzchak, appears at the end of the sefer. This particular emblem was apparently printed only in this work (see Yaari, Diglei Hamadpisim p. 141).

Cracow, 1600.. [116] leaves. Page size: 18.5 cm.

Provenance: Owners signature from the Ulma family. Good condition.

from the ‘William L. Gross Collection’

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