Bidspirit auction | Very Rare Kabbalah! Ashmoret ha-Boker.

Very Rare Kabbalah! Ashmoret ha-Boker. Only Edition, Salonika 1852. A very fine copy printed on green paper. - Sefer Ashmoret ha-Boker: commentaries on the Zohar and completions from the teachings of the Ari (Rabbi Isaac Luria) on the words of Rashbi. By Rabbi Yehuda son of Rabbi Shlomo ha-Kohen. [Parts I–II]. Published by Rabbi Moshe Castro. Only Edition. Salonika, 1852. Printed by Yitzchak Jahon. With approbations of the rabbis of Jerusalem: Rabbi Yitzhak Kovo, Rabbi Raphael Meir Panigel, and Rabbi Chaim Nissim Abulafia. The commentary Ashmoret ha-Boker on the Zohar is distinguished by its great length; thus all that was printed (approximately 419 leaves) reaches only to the end of Parashat Bo. An extremely rare Kabbalistic work! Part II has never appeared at public auction. The author: A gaon and holy man, withdrawn from all worldly matters; never did midnight pass with him asleep, and every night he diligently engaged in the hidden secrets of the Torah until morning. Son of the godly kabbalist Rabbi Shlomo ha-Kohen, author of Sha‘at Ratzon, Yafeh Sha‘ah, Sha‘ar ha-Kosher, and other works. One of the sages of Jerusalem and of the Beit El Yeshiva of kabbalists; renowned as one of the foremost teachers of esoteric Torah, to whom the finest students—Ashkenazim and Sephardim alike—flocked to receive instruction. He authored Ohaley Yehuda (Jerusalem, 1843). Part I: [2], 279 leaves. Part II: 280–365, 365–384, 383–418 leaves. 29 Cm. On the title page: the stamp of Rabbi Chezekiah ha-Kohen Rabin (1872–1945), who served as Chief Rabbi and head of the rabbinical court in Bukhara, and was descended from a family of rabbis and judges who served there. After immigrating to the Land of Israel, he served as a judge on the Sephardic rabbinical court in Jerusalem. In his court in Bukhara, emissaries (shadarim) who visited the cities of Bukhara would at times sit as judges; among those found sitting on the court were Rabbi Eliyahu Moshe Panigel, later Rishon le-Zion, and Rabbi Yitzhak Ashkenazi, son of the Rishon le-Zion Rabbi Avraham Ashkenazi. In 1940 he was appointed a judge on the Sephardic court in Jerusalem under the leadership of the city’s rabbi, Rabbi Chezekiah Shabbetai. On his tombstone is written: “Here lies Rav Mesharshia, one of the exalted, son of holy ones, the master judge, the eminent gaon Rabbi Hezekiah ha-Kohen Rabin, may his soul rest in the heavens, who served for forty years as Chief Rabbi, judge and decisor in the city of glory, Bukhara and its environs; passed away on the 9th of Tevet, 1945.”