Sha'ar Ruach HaKodesh and Sha'ar HaGilgulim. First Editions. Pedigree Copy. Glosses

Sha'ar Ruach HaKodesh and Sha'ar HaGilgulim. First Editions. Pedigree Copy. Glosses

Pair of two of the most important sefarim in Kitvei HaAr"i z"l: Sha'ar Ruach HaKodesh and Sha'ar HaGilgulim. Bound together with separate title pages. First editions. Jerusalem, Yisrael Beck Press. 1863.

Series of Kabbalah books authored by Rabbi Chaim Vital entitled Shemoneh She'arim. These are the seventh and eighth she'arim [the seventh and eighth books], Sha'ar Ruach HaKodesh and Sha'ar HaGilgulim [Hebrew:] "From Shemoneh She'arim authored by the great rabbi, the G-dly Kabbalist Rabbi Chaim Vital ... according to what he received from his rabbi ... Rabbeinu Yitzchak Luria Ashkenazi."

These sefarim, and Sha'ar Ruach HaKodesh in particular, are the only ones among Kitvei HeAr"i that deal with "practical" Kabbalistic wisdom using sacred Names and incantations of letter combinations, towards the supernatural achievements of ruach hakodesh and predicting the future. This may be the reason that they were not quickly printed, and only printed for the first time in 1863.

Pedigree copy: Antique rabbinic signatures on the title page and the preceding leaf, in Oriental script: "The youth Rabbi Yosef HaLevi ..." There are also several owners' stamps from "Menachem Mendel son of Y.D. grandson of Rabbi Y.L. Lowey of Liadi, and owners' stamps from the senior Kabbalists' yeshivah, Beit El, of Jerusalem, in which generations of the world's leading Kabbalists studied, from the Rasha"sh HaKadosh onward. Various handwritten glosses along the length of the sefer in different scripts left by the various Kabbalists who owned the sefer.

Sh. HaLevi, Sifrei Yerushalayim HaRishonim, 89-90, Stefansky, Sifrei Yessod, 353.

[2], 76, [4] leaf; 78 leaf. 21.5 cm.

Fine condition. Aging stains. The first (blank) protective leaf is mostly lacking.