Sha'ar Pitchei Levanon. Especially Rare Kabbalah Sefer. Kabbalistic Glosses

Sha'ar Pitchei Levanon. Especially Rare Kabbalah Sefer. Kabbalistic Glosses

"Especially scarce sefer" (Gershom Scholem)

Sefer Sha'ar Pitchei Levanon - compositions in Kabbalah. Name combinations and special vowelizations, as elucidated in Sefer Shushan Soddot attributed to the Ramba"n, and in the Ra'ava"d's commentary on Sefer Yetzirah [by Kabbalist Rabbi Shneur Feivush ben Menachem Manish. Livorno? Mantua? Amsterdam? 1753-1755?]. Especially rare sefer, with differences among the few known copies. Handwritten Kabbalistic glosses in the margins of the leaves.

Rare and unique Kabbalistic sefer printed in instalments over three years, in three different places. The sefer was printed without a title page and without indication of year or place of print. The author hinted at the initials of his name at the beginning of his lengthy introduction: Shneur Feivush ben Menachem Manish. Later on, he relates that he was on his way to the Land of Israel, and on the way, the boat almost sank. It was then that he decided to print this sefer Kabbalah. Apparently he composed the sefer (or part of it) during the forty days he was in quarantine after arriving in Italy, as was required for all travelers who came from the east upon their arrival in Italy.

The National Library has a scanned copy of Gershon Scholem's copy, upon which he wrote "Very scarce sefer." This copy from the National Library is lacking several leaves that appear in this copy, and this copy here lacks several leaves that are present there. Bibliographers estimate that the sefer was printed in the following order: Amsterdam, London and Italy. It is hard to know which leaves were printed where. As a result, there are several variants of the copies, and they are not to be considered incomplete. Some of the leaves have double pagination.

For more about the sefer and its author, refer to A. Ya'ari, Shluchei Eretz Yisrael, Jerusalem, 1951, pp. 527-530; G. Scholem, Tarbitz 25, 1956, p. 435 note 13; Ya'ari,  Tarbitz 26, 1957 p. 109; Yode'a Sefer no. 2186.

Many glosses appear along the entire length of the sefer, in Ashkenazic script from the time of printing, some are Kabbalistic glosses and others are linguistic, typical of author's glosses on their sefarim. There are also several Kabbalistic glosses in Oriental script, including a warning at the end of the sefer - also in Oriental script - about the great sanctity of this Kabbalistic sefer, and that no one should look at it without proper preparation.

Specifications of the leaves in this copy: 

1-8, author's preface; from leaf 9, in different lettering, the title Pitchei Levanon - until page 24b, Minhag Yisrael ... and concluding with "Bamedaber bi'tzedakah v'dofek al pitchei nedivim" from leaf 25, in different lettering, the title Sha'ar Pitchei Levanon - until p. 74, the end of the sefer.

Gershon Scholem's copy does not include leaves 9-17 (that are present in this copy).

Moderate condition. Aging stains. Several wide worming perforations. Reinforced with tape in the margins of the first leaf and the back of the last leaf.