Img. ID: 573926

The following description was prepared by William Gross:

Sar Shalom Sharabi (Hebrew: שר שלום מזרחי דידיע שרעבי), 1720–1777, was a Yemenite-Israeli Jewish Rabbi, Halachist, Chazzan and Kabbalist. In later life, he became the Rosh Yeshiva of Bet El Yeshiva in the Old City of Jerusalem. His daughter married Rabbi Hayyim Abraham Gagin of Jerusalem, making him the great-great-grandfather of Shem Tob Gaguine, the "Keter Shem Tob."

Sar Shalom Sharabi was born in Jewish Sharab, Yemen. He moved to Palestine, then under Ottoman rule, in fulfillment of a vow. On his way, he stayed in India, Baghdad, and Damascus. He was one of the earlier commentators on the works of the Ari, a major source of Kabbalah. His Siddur was known as the "Siddur Ha-Kavvanot," and is the main siddur used today by Kabbalists for prayer, meditation, and Yeshiva study. It is a Siddur with extensive Kabbalistic meditations by way of commentary.

This small pocket manuscript of prayers by the Rashash is a pocket siddur for the Sabbath by way of the Kabbalah.  The owner, Yitzhak Parchi, was an emissary to Turkey during the first half of the 19th century as well as a prolific author of 13 books, and this may have been a siddur for his travels. The prayers are for Shabbat, containing Kiddush le-Shabbat, Birkat Ha-Mazon, and a listing of the Seder Limud. A quite rare and interesting example of a small Rashash manuscript that contains some fine page design and illustrations, owned by a well-known person.

Author of a series of well-known moralistic books. He was one of the Beit El kabbalists during the period of R Avraham Shalom Sharabi, the grandson of the Rashash. His signature on page 4v: "Purchased with my money in my youth as an emissary of the holy city of Jerusalem, may it be speedily rebuilt in our days, Amen, the young one Isacc Farhi, may be protected."

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