Discovery: Practical Kabbalah Handwritten by Rabbi Moshe Mizrachi. Damascus, 1628

Discovery: Practical Kabbalah Handwritten by Rabbi Moshe Mizrachi. Damascus, 1628

Bundle of works on practical Kabbalah: Remedies, lots and divinations, in Hebrew and in Judeo-Arabic, and written by Rabbi Moshe Mizrachi, a contemporary of Rabbi Chaim Vital's, who mentions him in his writings as "HaSofer." In most of Rabbi Moshe Mizrachi's transcriptions, his name does not appear. They are usually identified by comparison with two manuscripts in which he signed his name in the colophon. In this manuscript, his full name appears twice(!) in his hand - at the beginning and the end of the preface to the manuscript.

The manuscript is comprised of several parts:

1) Book of lots for divination "by the anthologist Moshe Mizrachi ... Damascus ... 1628"

2) Another book of lots. Incomplete.

3) Book on sand lots (גורל החול)

4) Group of books on remedies and the nature of drugs in Judeo-Arabic.

Books of lots have always constituted an important aspect of practical Kabbalah, for the purpose of revealing the hidden and predicting the future. "And it is tried-and-true secret of Jewish sages and will tell all that is asked by the petitioner." There are those who say that this goral was used by the men of the Great Assembly [אנשי הכנסת הגדולה], who hid them from future generations, and only after the cancellation of the Greek decrees on the Jewish people was it revealed to select individuals. Over the years, many handwritten and printed copies were made of books of various types of lots. But given that precise incantations are necessary, and that they must be conducted at specific times according to detailed instructions, and that the books' copyists were not sufficiently expert, the lots often did not work to produce precise results, and as a result, usage of this subject in practical kabbalah has waned.

Before us is a collection of books of lots including precise instructions, written in the hand of Rabbi Moshe Mizrachi, one of Damascus' sages and Kabbalists, and one of the leading copyists of the oral tradition from the generation of the Ar"i HaKadosh and Rabbi Chaim Vital. Rabbi Chaim Vital himself authorizes him and refers to him as "HaSofer" ["The Scribe"] because of the huge amount of material he left behind. Kabbalah scholar Yosef Avivi, in his book Kabbalat HaAr"i (Chapter 17), in a lengthy essay on Rabbi Moshe Mizrachi, writes that sixteen manuscripts of the Ar"i's kabbalah written by Rabbi Moshe Mizrachi have been found, as well as his glosses on the Zohar and Tikkunim.

Approximately [160] pp. 13x19 cm. Oriental script. Tables and Kabbalistic symbols. It may be that one or more leaves are lacking. This material has not been adequately examined as befits its importance.

Fine condition. Aging and usage stains. Reinforcements. Minimal tears in some leaves with very slight damage to text. Some leaves may be lacking. Semi-leather binding and new marbleized paper.