Auction 93 Part 1 - Manuscripts, Prints and Engravings, Objects and Facsimiles, from the Gross Family Collection, and Private Collections
Manuscript, Siddur Kavanot HaRashash – Two Volumes – Tunis, 19th Century
Manuscript, Siddur Kavanot HaRashash – two volumes: Vol. I – the High Holidays; Vol. II – Sukkot, shaking of the Lulav, and Hakafot, scribed by R. Yaakov Elhaik. Tunis, [19th century].
Neat Sephardic (Tunisian) script. Each page of text enclosed in a rectangular border. At the beginning of the second volume, decorated title page, stating the name of the writer and place of writing (date of completion not stated).
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.
Two manuscript volumes: Vol. I (High Holidays): 97 leaves. Vol. II (Sukkot): 31 leaves. 24 cm. Good–fair condition. Stains, including dampstains and traces of past dampness. New bindings.
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 nos. 7–8.
See:
• Only on paper: Six Centuries of Judaica from the Gross Family Collection, CD, 2005.
• Kabbalah. Om judisk mysticism, edited by Yvonne Jacobsson and Lisa Marie Mannfolk. Judiska Museet i Stockholm, 2002, p. 21.
Provenance: The Gross Family Collection, Tel Aviv, TU.011.001, TU.011.002.