Auction 93 Part 1 - Manuscripts, Prints and Engravings, Objects and Facsimiles, from the Gross Family Collection, and Private Collections
Manuscript, Siddur Kavanot HaRashash – Scribed by Rabbi Yichye Tzarum – Jerusalem, 19th/20th Century
Manuscript, Siddur Kavanot HaRashash – for Chanukah, Purim and Passover Haggadah, scribed by the kabbalist R. Yichye Tzarum. [Jerusalem, 19th/20th century].
Oriental–Yemenite script. In several places, the copyist – R. Yichye Tzarum – added his own glosses. The Passover Haggadah is preceded by homilies for the Seder by R. David Magar (prominent disciple of the Rashash).
R. Yichye son of R. Yosef Tzarum (1843–1917), a leader of Yemenite immigration in 1882. In 1885, he was appointed head of the Yemenite Beit Din and rabbi of the Yemenite community in Jerusalem. A kabbalist in the Beit El yeshiva.
Siddur HaRashash was a siddur with kabbalistic kavanot based on the writings of the Arizal and R. Chaim Vital, edited by the kabbalists of the Beit El yeshiva in Jerusalem, based on the siddur compiled by their teacher the Rashash – R. Shalom Mizrachi Sharabi, dean of the Beit El yeshiva in the mid–18th century. For many years, copyings of Siddur HaRashash were produced from accurate manuscripts proofread by the kabbalists in the yeshiva.
Prayer using the manuscripts of the siddur was the privilege of just a few kabbalists. In general, the kabbalists themselves produced various copyings of Siddur HaRashash for their personal use, or entrusted them to reliable kabbalists only. Each of these manuscripts bore the stamp of the kabbalist who copied it, through the emendations and additions he inserted.
For many years, the siddur was zealously and intentionally kept in manuscript form only, without being printed at all. Only in 1911–1916 was in published in six parts by several Ashkenazi kabbalists of Yeshivat Shaar HaShamayim in Jerusalem.
[42] leaves. 18 cm. Good condition. Stains. Stamps. New, elegant leather binding.
Regarding the development of Siddur HaRashash, its scribing and redaction by the kabbalists of the Beit El yeshiva, see essay by R. Moshe Hillel: The Rashash's Meditation Prayer Books, Between Tradition and Innovation, in: Windows on Jewish Worlds. Essays in Honor of William Gross, ed. Shalom Sabar, Emile Schrijver, Falk Wiesemann, pp 205–239. An addendum at the end of his essay lists the manuscripts of Siddur HaRashash found in the Gross Family Collection. The present manuscript is listed there as no. 12.
Provenance: The Gross Family Collection, Tel Aviv, EI.011.012.