Bidspirit auction | Tokheḥat Megulah and HaTzad Naḥash.

Tokheḥat Megulah and HaTzad Naḥash. London, 1715. An Important Anti-Sabbatean Controversy - Two polemical works by Rabbi Yosef Ergas, author of Shomer Emunim ha-Kadmon, one of the foremost opponents of the Sabbatean movement – Tokheḥat Megulah (“Open Rebuke”) and HaTzad Naḥash (“Catching the Serpent”), both directed against the Sabbatean leader Nehemiah Ḥayon. In Tokheḥat Megulah, Rabbi Ergas strongly attacks Ḥayon, who had published his Sabbatean doctrines in his book Oz le-Elohim. Ergas denounces his heretical ideas with sharp and learned refutation, exposing the spiritual danger of false messianism and mystical deviation. In response, Ḥayon published his book Shelhevet Yah (Amsterdam, 1714), and Rabbi Ergas answered him with a second work, HaTzad Naḥash, a lengthy and profound treatise in which he likens Ḥayon to the primordial serpent, analyzing in detail the theological error at the core of Sabbatean belief. Following the title page appears a preface by Rabbi Moshe Ḥagiz, one of the leading anti-Sabbatean activists and a prominent figure in the struggle against Ḥayon, who helped bring this book to print and circulated it throughout Europe to warn Jewish communities against Ḥayon’s influence. Tokheḥat Megulah was apparently first printed in 1714, but no copy of that edition is known to have survived. The present London edition of 1715 is therefore the second printing of Tokheḥat Megulah and the first edition of HaTzad Naḥash (see M. Friedman, “Igrot be-Parashat Pulmus Ḥayon, ” Sefunot, vol. 10, 1966, p. 618, no. 20). London, 1715 [תע”ה]. [2], 62 leaves. 18.5 cm. Very good condition. Bright, thick, high-quality paper. Colored edges. New attractive binding. A particularly fine copy of one of the most significant anti-Sabbatean polemical works, reflecting the fierce intellectual and theological battle to preserve traditional faith in the face of the Sabbatean crisis.