* “This book Sifri does not contain the extent of his greatness. His friend will tell the name of the author and his antiquity. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai ztzuk”l, his seal and his signature. It was printed once in Venice in 1546. There are already none to be found in the city. And due to its great importance, it has been reprinted here in Hamburg in 1789.”
Approbation by Rabbi Pinchas HaLevi Ish Horowitz, author of Hafla’ah , Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch of Zamosh and more. Owner’s signature from the time of the printing.
[1], 91 leaves. 20 cm.
* VeShav HaCohen . Livorno, 1788. First edition.
Kabbalistic illustrations and charts. Leaf 16 bears a handwritten kabbalistic gloss. Interesting example of a work by an Ashkenazic sage printed in a Sephardic community, with enthusiastic approbations from prominent Sephardic rabbis.
The author, kabbalist Rabbi Avraham Katz [d. c. 1800] was born in Lask, Poland. He then moved to Furth and then to Italy. In 1770 he ascended to Jerusalem, and in 1780 he traveled on a fundraising mission to Ashkenaz, and then to Tunis and to Leghorn, where he printed this work. He returned to Jerusalem where he was killed in sanctification of G-d’s name by the Turkish government c. 1800. Refer to: Avraham Yaari, Shluchei Eretz Yisrael , Jerusalem, 1951, p. 553-556.
18, 32 leaves. 20 cm.
Overall fine condition.