Bidspirit auction | Rare Meah Shearim Salonika, 1543.

Rare Meah Shearim Salonika, 1543. First Edition * A very early and exceedingly rare Salonikan sefer, complete and beautiful. A commentary on the positive and negative commandments in the manner of both pshat and Kabbalah, including “secrets on several matters, ” by Rabbi Yitzchak Shani. This sefer is the first printed work in which excerpts from the holy and ancient Kabbalistic sefer, Sefer HaKaneh, were printed (see Stefansky, Sifrei Yesod no. 337). Regarding his sources, the author writes at the end of the sefer: “As I have found in the sefarim of the Kabbalists among the Rishonim and Achronim, foremost among them the holy sefer Kaneh ben Kaneh.” Concerning the wisdom of Kabbalah, the author writes in the introduction: “A person must engage in Torah until he attains knowledge of the true understanding called the wisdom of Kabbalah, for through this knowledge a man’s soul becomes attached and ascends to the place from which it was hewn.” It includes explanations on one hundred mitzvos — fifty-five explanations on positive commandments and forty-five explanations on negative commandments — and thus is called “Meah Shearim.” Salonika 1543. First Edition. Printed in Soncino type. Page Count: [58] leaves. Size: 19 cm On the margin of leaf 39b, there is an original small leaf affixed to the margin of the page containing three lines that were omitted from the printing. Title page with an attractive and unusual border. A complete and beautiful copy, with slight water stains. Exceedingly rare. On the title page is the signature of Rabbi Chaim Voltura, one of the sages of Italy at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Bibliography: Habermann, HaMadpisim Bnei Soncino p. 70; Ginzei Yisrael no. 1118