Manuscript, Otzrot Chaim, teachings of the Arizal as recorded by R. Chaim Vital – Maghrebi redaction, with unpublished glosses by Moroccan kabbalists. Marrakesh (Morocco), [1752].
Title page illustrated and decorated in color (a horseshoe arch, with floral and geometric designs, typical of Moroccan architecture). Neat Sephardic-Maghrebi script, with many marginal glosses by various writers. The title page states the name of the scribe – R. Aharon son of R. Avraham Corcos. Colophon on p. 234b, dated Thursday 5th Sivan 1752 (Erev Shavuot), with the scribe's calligraphic signature.
In-text "windows" with glosses by Moroccan kabbalists. The manuscript also features many marginal glosses by various writers. Several leaves at the end of the manuscript with additional glosses by various writers. Some of these are copyings of glosses by R. Avraham Azulai, R. Avraham ibn Mussa and other Moroccan kabbalists (see below).
The book Otzrot Chaim was edited by R. Yaakov Tzemach, and it comprises Seder HaAtzilut as R. Chaim Vital received it from his teacher the Arizal. Since the book does not include the complete Seder HaAtzilut, it was rearranged by the Moroccan kabbalists, who added several chapters from Mevo She'arim. The present manuscript is a Maghrebi redaction of this work – a combination of Otzrot Chaim with parts of Mevo She'arim. This version is only found in manuscripts copied in North Africa, and it was first printed in Livorno in 1849.
The present manuscript contains glosses by leading 18th century Moroccan kabbalists – R. Avraham Azulai (d. 1741), a teacher of R. Shalom Buzaglo author of Mikdash Melech on the Zohar; and R. Avraham ibn Mussa (d. 1733), disciple of R. Yaakov Marrache. Their glosses are signed for the most part with the initials "A.A." [Avraham Azulai] and "A.B.M" [Avraham ben Mussa]. Some of the glosses were copied by the scribe in "windows" within the text, while some were added later in the margins and in the leaves at the end of the book, in a different hand (presumably copied from a different source). On one of the final leaves, there is a page with the heading: "New, recently added glosses by R. A.A.".
The Chida (in Shem HaGedolim) relates that R. Avraham ibn Mussa would debate on kabbalistic topics with R. Avraham Azulai of Marrakech; and seems to indicate that the disagreement between them was apparent in their glosses. Some of their glosses were printed in the Livorno edition, however, the printed glosses do not reveal any dispute between the two luminaries. Conversely, there is a booklet in the Meir Benayahu Collection containing copyings of the glosses of R. Avraham Azulai and of R. Avraham ibn Mussa, as an independent work (rather than in the margins of Otzrot Chaim). In this booklet, which contains glosses which were not printed in the Livorno edition, disagreements and disputes between the two kabbalists are indeed apparent (see: M. Benayahu, R. Avraham Ibn Mussa et son fils R. Moshé – deux grands kabbalistes lurianiques de l'Afrique du Nord, in Michael 5, Tel Aviv 1978, pp. 22-24). Some of these glosses were printed before the 1844 Livorno edition as an independent section within the book Mekom Binah, Salonika 1813, however, there too, the glosses were not printed in their entirety.
The present manuscript also includes glosses in the name of other kabbalists, such as R. Yaakov Pinto (sometimes referred to as "the Rif") and R. Avraham son of R. Yaakov Pinto.
Additionally, the manuscript includes dozens of glosses by R. Yosef Alcasoli, most of them signed with his initials "Yoel". The final leaves contain additional glosses from him, three of them signed with his full name: "Yosef Alcasoli", "Yosef son of R. Yehuda Alcasoli". These glosses were written in two different hands, one neat and organized, and the second unskilled; it is possible that one of them was written by R. Alcosili himself.
We have no information about the kabbalist R. Yosef son of R. Yehuda Alcasoli. He was presumably a kabbalist in Marrakesh; perhaps this is the dayan "R. Y. Alcasoli" mentioned in a responsum by R. Avraham Coriat, in Responsa Zechut Avot, section 20 (R. Avraham Coriat of Tétouan, d. Cheshvan 1805; it appears from the responsum that the R. Alcasoli he mentions was from the previous generation).
To the best of our knowledge, the glosses by R. Yosef Alcasoli found in the present manuscript were never published, and they presumably do not appear in any other manuscript of the book Otzrot Chaim. Some of the glosses by other Moroccan kabbalists were also presumably never published.
On p. 135a, stamp of Rabbi Chaim David Serero Rabbi of Fez.

[1], 234; [5] leaves. 21.5 cm. Condition varies. Most leaves in good condition, several leaves in fair-poor condition. Stains and wear. Tears and worming. Large open tears and blemishes to leaves 157-233, due to ink erosion, affecting text. New binding, incorporating parts of original binding.

Reference: Shalom Sabar, Sephardi Elements in North African Hebrew Manuscript Decoration, in: Jewish Art, vol. 18 (1992), pp. 168-191.
Exhibition: Yeshiva University Museum, New York, "The Sephardic Journey: 1492-1992", 1990-1992. See exhibition catalog, p. 296, no. 398.

Provenance: The Gross Family Collection, Tel Aviv, MO.011.017.