Bidspirit auction | Collection of Early Kabbalistic Seforim,

Collection of Early Kabbalistic Seforim, 1649–1885 .Marginal annotations by the Tzaddik Rebbi Moshe Frisherman of Tomaszów. - 1. Sefer Asarah Ma’amarot – a highly important kabbalistic work by one of the greatest kabbalists and righteous figures of Italy, the Ramʿa of Pano, together with the commentary Yoel Moshe by the gaon Rabbi Moshe son of R. Shlomo Ashkenazi HaLevi of Frankfurt. Amsterdam, 1649. First printing of this important commentary! 5-158 leaves. Lacking the first four leaves. Early signature: Eliezer son of R. Isaac David HaLevi. Early label: Yosef Kelmer. 2. Sefer Zot Ḥukat HaTorah, an abridgment of Sefer HaKavanot of the Ari z”l, by Rabbi Avraham Chizkuni. Zhovkva, 1860. Printed by Rabbi Shmuel Pinchas Stiller. Marginalia of the Gaon and tzaddik Rebbe Moshe Frisherman of Tomaszów, of blessed memory, and an inscription of two names for commemoration in his own hand. He was born in 1903 in the city of Tomaszów to his father, the tzaddik R. Yosef Aryeh Leibush of Tomaszów, son of the holy R. Yehoshua’le of Tomaszów, son of the holy R. Yosef of Tomaszów, of blessed memory; and to his mother, Rebbetzin Tzipporah, daughter of the tzaddik R. Shmuel Rubin of Karchin (son-in-law of R. Elazar “Sagi Nehor” of Lizhensk), son of the tzaddik R. Aharon of Ropshitz, son of the holy R. Asher Yeshayah of Ropshitz, of blessed memory. At the age of twelve he was orphaned, God forbid, of his father, and was therefore raised extensively by his uncles: the tzaddik R. Naftali Rubin of Vyzhnytsia (son-in-law of the holy one of Shinova) and the tzaddik R. Asher Rubin of Karchin. Later the tzaddik R. Aryeh Leibush Rubin of Cieszanów came and settled in Tomaszów; he then took the orphaned youth under his protection and influenced him greatly. In 1931 he married the daughter of the tzaddik R. Baruch Rubin of Brizdowitz (son-in-law of the tzaddik R. Mendeli of Ziditshov), son of the tzaddik R. Meir of Glogow, son of the tzaddik R. Mendeli of Glogow, son of the holy R. Yitzchak of Ropshitz, of blessed memory. 3. Sefer Yetzirah, with commentaries by the Raavad, Ramban, R. Saadia Gaon, R. Elazar of Worms, R. Moshe Botarel, and the Gaon of Vilna. Lemberg, 1860. The title page states “Third edition, ” though it is apparently a second edition. Pagination irregular. 4. This is the Sefer Adam Yashar, composed by the all-encompassing holy and divine rabbi, our master Rabbi Isaac Luria (the Ari), of blessed memory.” Printed from a manuscript found among the archives of his foremost disciple Rabbi Chaim Vital, and arranged and prepared for print by the kabbalist Rabbi Yaakov Tzemach, who merited to see with his own eyes many of the writings of Rabbi Chaim Vital, as he writes in the introduction to his holy work Kol BaRamah, where he also discusses the great importance of this book. First Edition. Kraków, 1885. With approbations of the holy rabbis: Rebbi Yechezkel Shraga Halberstam of Vishnitsa; Rebbi David Halberstam of Chrzanów; and Rabbi Shlomo Halberstam of Vishnitsa. The manuscript from which this sefer was printed—found in the estate of the holy Rebbi Chaim Halberstam of Sanz—was brought from Modena, Italy, by R. Tzvi Hirsch Lipschitz of Kraków. After “a learned young scholar well-versed in reading Italian script” copied it into “our script, ” it was transmitted by the holy Rebbi Shlomo Halberstam of Bobov to R. Avraham Leintzig, who published it. [2], 94 leaves. 25.5 cm. The Controversy Surrounding the sefer and the Identity of Its Author Modern scholars of Kabbalah tend to maintain that the author of the sefer is not Rabbi Chaim Vital, despite what is stated on its title. Gershom Scholem (Kiryat Sefer 19 [1942–1943], p. 188) asserts: “This entire sefer did not come from the hand of R. Chaim Vital himself; rather, a forger in the seventeenth century deliberately added several passages in the name of R. Chaim Vital, whose forgery is evident from within.” According to Yosef Avivi (Writings of R. Chaim Vital Found in Jerusalem, HaMa‘ayan, Tammuz 1978, pp. 67–68), the sefer is a compilation from various sources, to which a forged introduction in the name of R. Chaim Vital was appended, “and between its lines were added phrases praising R. Chaim Vital and his works… as well as expressions intended to magnify the greatness of the secrets contained therein.” In his view, large portions of the sefer derive from Rabbi Yaakov Tzemach’s Adam Yashar (a special recension of Adam Yashar; most of that work is included here), while other passages were taken from additional writings of Rabbi Yaakov Tzemach. Signature of R. Manis Schneider of Chrzanów.