Manuscript, Zimrat HaAretz – kabbalistic kavanot for prayer, and Kesef HaKipurim – tikun for a plague, by kabbalist R. Avigdor Azriel. [Jerusalem, between 1777-1797].

The present manuscript is the copy of the author R. Avigdor Azriel, containing his kabbalistic works – Zimrat HaAretz and Kesef HaKipurim. The first work (Zimrat HaAretz) was mostly written by one writer, in Oriental semi-cursive script, apart from three leaves in the middle (41-43) written in another hand, in Oriental rounded cursive script (Hebron style, resembling the handwriting of the Chida). The second work (Kesef HaKipurim) was written entirely in the second hand. Both writers were likely kabbalists of the Beit El yeshiva in Jerusalem, peers of the author.

At the beginning of each work, the author added a title page text in his handwriting and with his signature. The text of the first title page begins: "I, a lowly creature, made this booklet, small in quantity, and named it Zimrat HaAretz, regarding important practice, to do the will of our Father in Heaven and to rectify the Shechinah and bring the redemption nearer…", and at the end: "So says the servant of G-d, Avigdor Azriel" (calligraphic signature). Text of second title page: "I, the small one of Eretz Israel, made this booklet as a tikun for plague, may it not come to be, I called it Kesef HaKipurim, and I collected all the teachings of the Arizal… and also gathered some Segulot and added my own innovations… So says the servant of G-d, Avigdor Azriel" (calligraphic signature).

On p. 11b, gloss handwritten by author.

The present manuscript was written after 1777, the year of death of the author's teacher – the Rashash, whom he mentions with a blessing for the deceased, but before the author's own passing in 1797.

The two works were printed in Jerusalem in 1892 by R. Avraham Azriel, a descendant of the author, but the present manuscript contains many differences from the printed version in organization and text.

We know of several corresponding manuscripts which were also copied for the author. One is JTS Ms. 2137, which comprises both of the above works, all written in the first hand of the present manuscript, and contains many glosses and corrections handwritten by the author. The first work begins with a title page handwritten and signed by the author, and the second work has a title page written by the copyist. The order and text of that manuscript accord with the printed text, and can be posited to be the manuscript used by the printers (the author's corrections are incorporated into the printed text).

A second manuscript, Benayahu Ms. K 159, contains only Zimrat HaAretz. It too is in the hand of the first copyist of the present manuscript, with a title page handwritten and signed by the author. This copy does not contain glosses by the author.

A third manuscript, JTS Ms. 3639, contains only Kesef HaKipurim, by the same copyist, with no title page and without the author's glosses (it may be the second part of the Benayahu Ms.).

As an example of a notable variant, the title page of Kesef HaKipurim in the first JTS Ms. reads (like the printed version): "I announce that all the kavanot written here are the very words of… the Arizal, and apart from him I wrote nothing, but rather arranged and expanded…". The present version, however, reads: "I collected all the teachings of the Arizal… and also gathered some Segulot and added my own innovations…".

The kabbalist
R. Avigdor Azriel (d. 1797), a prominent kabbalist in the Beit El yeshiva in Jerusalem, and a close disciple of R. Shalom Mizrachi Sharabi (the Rashash). He was also a member of the Chesed LeAvraham yeshiva in Jerusalem headed by R. David Pardo, author of Chasdei David on the Tosefta, and was later appointed a member of the Beit Din of the Maharit Algazi. Three of his halachic responsa were printed by the Maharit Algazi in his Simchat Yom Tov (Thessaloniki, 1794, sections 2, 9, 27). The Yisa Berachah, in his approbation to Zimrat HaAretz (Jerusalem 1892), describes him with epithets such as "a lofty personage, pious, holy and abstinent…".

[3], 2-40, [41-44]; 1-16 leaves; [15] leaves (total of 75 written leaves). 21 cm. Fair condition. Stains, including large, dark dampstains. Worming in many places, affecting text. New binding.