Manuscript, Sefer HaKavanot by the Arizal – Tlemcen (Algeria), ca. 1790s-1810s – Copy of Rabbi Yitzchak Abulkhair – ...

Manuscript, Sefer HaKavanot by the Arizal – Tlemcen (Algeria), ca. 1790s-1810s – Copy of Rabbi Yitzchak Abulkhair – With Glosses and Additions by Various Kabbalists

Manuscript, Sefer HaKavanot (Shaar HaKavanot), Part II, prayers for Shabbat, festivals and Rosh Chodesh – by R. Chaim Vital, from the teachings of his teacher the Arizal – written by R. Yehuda Djian, with glosses and additions by various kabbalists. Tlemcen, ca. 1790s-1810s.
Decorated title page. Fine, wide-margined copy, in neat semi-cursive Western script, with headings and initial words in square script. Ornaments on several leaves.
In-text "windows" with glosses by R. Chaim Vital and his son R. Shmuel Vital, pertaining to the words of the Arizal.
Dozens of profound marginal glosses in cursive script; many of them are copyings of glosses by R. Shmuel Vital (introduced with: "Am.Sh." = Amar Shmuel). These glosses were copied from a different manuscript, which was presumably not available to the copyist of the main manuscript. One gloss contains a copying "from an old Sefer HaKavanot" (p. 150b). Some of the glosses are signed "A.Y.N", possibly the initials of R. Yosef Abulkhair (see below). Three pages were added at the end of the manuscript (presumably by the writer of the aforementioned glosses), with a copying of glosses from an old Sefer HaKavanot of R. Yaakov Pinto. At the end of the last page of these glosses, a gloss signed: "Says Yosef Abulkhair…". This is followed by a page with another copying: "I found written in the name of the kabbalist R. Sh. Shamama".
On the decorated title page, the writer states: "I copied it upon the wish of the Torah scholar and dayan, R. Yitzchak Abulkhair, I, the copyist, Yehuda son of R. Natan Djian, in Tlemcen". [The center of the title page was left blank by the scribe, and an inscription in a different, later hand was added, containing the writer's prayer and date of the completion of the manuscript in Shevat 1744 (both false)].
The manuscript was written by R. Yehuda Djian, son of R. Natan Djian rabbi of Tlemcen, Algeria in 1790s-1820s (see: Malchei Yeshurun, p. 88), for his father's friend R. Yitzchak Abulkhair, rabbi of Algiers at that time.
R. Yitzchak son of Yosef Abulkhair (Aboulker), rabbi of Algiers in 1790s-1810s, was executed by the authorities in 1815 – see: A. Morgenstern, The Return to Jerusalem (Hebrew), Jerusalem 2007, pp. 264-265. The Abulkhair family was an old, prestigious Algerian family. One of patriarchs of the family, R. Abu'l-Khayr Taherti from Tahert (Tiaret), lived at the end of the Geonim period; see Tzion, 27, 1962, pp. 156-157 (Malchei Yeshurun, pp. 19-20).
On the page preceding the title page, interesting inscription dated 1891, handwritten and signed by the emissary R. Shmuel Karkus of Jerusalem: "This book was brought by R. Shmuel Abulkhair from Algiers, and he settled in Jerusalem where he lived for two years before he passed away. His wife then sold his books, and G-d granted me this book of his… 17th Shevat 1891, Shmuel Karkus". R. Karkus's stamp appears above the inscription. R. Shmuel Abulkhair (son of R. Yosef son of R. Shmuel), leading rabbi of Algiers in the late 19th century, immigrated to Jerusalem ca. 1888, and passed away in 1890 (see: Malchei Yeshurun, pp. 20-21).

[3], 1-109, 150-159, [6] leaves (one leaf at beginning and three leaves at end – blank). 24 cm. High-quality paper. Wide margins. Good-fair condition. Stains. Worming to several leaves (some repaired). New leather binding.

Provenance: The Gross Family Collection, Tel Aviv, AL.011.003.