Manuscript, Sefer HaPeliah, Sitrei Torah – on the Book of Bereshit. Tripoli, Lebanon, 1497.
Sephardic script, characteristic of Spanish exiles. Written by the scribe Avraham the Spaniard son of Moshe Peretz for Shmuel son of Yosef son of Hillel, as attested by the scribe's colophon on the last page: "This book was copied for R. Shmuel son of R. Yosef son of R. Hillel, may G-d grant him the merit that he, his offspring and offspring's offspring for all generations read it. And this book was completed on Friday afternoon, 8th Av 1497, in New Sinim (Tripoli) on the Mediterranean, I the scribe Avraham the Spaniard son of R. Moshe Peretz".
Diagrams and charts on several pages. Glosses on margins of several pages, some added by the scribe himself, and several glosses by other writers (some in Sephardic cursive script and others in Italian script).
Sefer HaPeliah is an early kabbalistic book by an unknown author. Some attributed it to R. Nechuniah son of HaKanah or his father, while others attributed it to R. Avigdor Kara. The Sefer HaKanah, on the rationales for the commandments, is a parallel work apparently by the same author. Sefer HaPeliah is also sometimes referred to as Sefer HaKanah or Sefer HaKanah HaAroch (see: Yisrael M. Ta-Shma, Where Were HaKanah and HaPeliah Authored?, Studies in Medieval Jewish Literature, Volume III, Italy and Byzantium, Jerusalem, 2006, pp. 218-228 [Hebrew]; Michal Kushner-Oron, HaPeliah and HaKanah – Their Kabbalistic Elements, Socioreligious Orientation and Literary Design, PhD dissertation, Jerusalem 1980 [Hebrew]). Sefer HaPeliah was first printed in Korets, 1784, with approbations of leading Chassidic tzaddikim, and was later reprinted in Przemyśl, 1884.
Part I of the book is lacking in the present manuscript. The manuscript begins with the text corresponding to p. 81a (line 12) of the Przemyśl edition. Remains of gathering numbers indicate that the beginning of the manuscript is missing ten gatherings as well as one leaf from the first remaining gathering. There are also two leaves missing between leaves 6-7.
[145] leaves (lacking leaves from the beginning and middle, see above). 31 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains, dampstains and dark stains to some leaves. Ink fading and damage to several leaves, slightly affecting text. Marginal open tears to several leaves, repaired with paper filling. New leather binding.
The manuscript was formerly held in Aleppo, Syria, where it was examined and described by the scholar Elkan Nathan Adler in his travelogue published in: Gedenkbuch zur Erinnerung an David Kaufmann, hrsg. von M. Brann und F. Rosenthal, Breslau, 1900, p. 132.
A detailed codicological description of the manuscript appears in: Colette Sirat, Malachi Beit-Arié and Mordechai Gelzer, Manuscrits médiévaux en caractères hébraïques portant des indications de date jusqu'à 1540 – Part III. Paris and Jerusalem, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1986, vol. 3, leaf 125 (French and Hebrew).
Tripoli, Lebanon was called Sinim or New Sinim (Sinim Chadta) in Jewish sources (see for instance: Responsa Divrei Rivot by R. Shmuel Adarbi, section 345; and see: Sh. Asaf, Tarbitz III, 1932, p. 345. This identification can be traced back to R. Saadia Gaon's translation of Genesis 10:17. Adler, op. cit., mistakenly identifies its place of origin as "Cochin China"!).
