Kabbalistic Manuscript: Sefer Adam Yashar by Rabbi Chaim Vital. Morocco? 1719

Kabbalistic Manuscript: Sefer Adam Yashar by Rabbi Chaim Vital. Morocco? 1719

"And it is the root and principle of all drushim ... more important to me than all other books ..." (Mahar"i Tzemach)

Comprised of sermons, elucidations and deep articles about the circles and the lines, the points and rectifications in general and in particular by the G-dly Kabbalist Rabbi Chaim Vital arranged and with glosses by Rabbi Ya'akov Tzemach.

Colophon at the end: Blessed be Hash-m who has granted me the privilege of completing this honorable book named Adam Yashar, may he grant me likewise to endlessly write many books. Finished on the fifth day of Shevat, 1719.

The manuscript before us is one of the last of the hidden writings found by Rabbi Avraham Azoulay in the Safed genizah. It is known that Rabbi Chaim Vital wrote a later edition of his writings in which he expanded upon his teacher the Ar"i's doctrine, including matters he conceived with his great spirit and Kabbalistic wisdom, yet he decided to bury them in the cemetery in Safed. Rabbi A. Azoulay later published them according to intentions and unifications. One of the writings taken from the genizah is the book before us, Adam Yashar. Mahar"i Tzemach writes in his preface to Kol BeRamah about this book "It is the root and principle of all drushim ... more important to me than all other books; it is entirely innovation and additions."

Sefer Adam Yashar was printed for the first time over 150 years after the manuscript before us, in Krakow, 1885. We have not made a comparison between this manuscript and the printed version. The manuscript before us was apparently written in Morocco. It is incomplete, but does contain most of the book.

Approximately [162] written pages. Leaves 33-114. 23x17 cm. High-quality paper. Wide margins. Straight and orderly Oriental script with "windows" ['חלונות'] for the Mahar"i Tzemach's glosses. There is a lengthy handwritten scholarly gloss on the sheet of page 49a.

Moderate-fine condition. Aging stains. Minimal worming damage, primarily in the inner margins. Not bound.