Manuscript, Siddur Kavanot HaRashash – kavanot for the morning blessings. [Tunisia, 19th century].
Neat, square and semi–cursive Sephardic (Tunisian) script. The manuscript opens with a passage from the foreword to Rechovot HaNahar. Several glosses by a different writer.
One section mentions the year 1768, yet it was presumably part of the text copied by the writer from an earlier siddur.

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.

[22] leaves (+ blank leaves). 21.5 cm. Good–fair condition. Stains, including dark stains. Worming, slightly affecting text in several places. New 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. 5.

Provenance: The Gross Family Collection, Tel Aviv, TU.011.007.