Manuscript – Sefer Tola’at Ya’akov – elucidation of prayers using the Pardes method by the G-dly Kabbalist Rabbi Meir ibn Gabbai, a leading Kabbalist in the early period of the school of the Ar”i and his disciples. Characteristic Yemenite script. Yemen, 17th century.
Dozens of glosses along the sefer by an unidentified Yemenite scholar. It is evident from the content of the comments that the writer was an expert sage familiar with Kabbalistic writings. Some of the glosses may have been written by another writer.
Tola’at Ya’akov is one of the earliest Kabbalistic commentaries on the prayer services.
The work was written in 1507, when the author was only 27 years old. It was brought to print for the first time in Constantinople in 1560, just two years after Sefer HaZohar was first published. It was reprinted in 1581 in Kraków, only about twenty years after the first edition.
The author Rabbi Meir ibn Gabbai, was a Kabbalist from among the Spanish exiles. He arrived in Egypt, and possibly also in Safed. All of Rabbi Meir’s sefarim – Tola’at Ya’akov , Derech Emunah and Avodat HaKodesh , were greatly admired by Kabbalists as a whole, from all communities. The Mahara”l and the Shla”h cite him and rely on him as an authoritative source in their sefarim (the Shla”h mentions him close to 150 times!).
[302] written pages. Lacking several leaves. Approximately 15 cm. Some of the glosses are cropped.
Moderate-fine condition. Stains, slight tears and wear in the margins of the leaves. Worming perforations in several leaves, some completed with paper. Old binding with a leather spine, slightly chafed.