Img. ID: 574521

The following description was prepared by William Gross:

An exposition of Lurianic Kabbalah by R. Hayyim Ben Joseph Vital (1542–1620), one of the greatest kabbalists, and the leading disciple of R. Isaac Ben Solomon Luria Ashkenazi (1534–1572, ha-Ari). Vital was born in Safed and studied in yeshivot there, especially under R. Moses Alshekh, his teacher in exoteric subjects. In 1564 he began to study Kabbalah, at first according to the system R. Moses Cordovero, and, later after R. Isaac Luria’s (Ari) arrival in Safed, under the latter, becoming the Ari’s principal disciple. After the Ari’s deat, R. Vital began to arrange the Ari’s teachings in written form, elaborating on them according to his own understanding, becoming the primary transmitter of the Ari’s teachings. R. Vital later moved to Jerusalem, serving as rabbi and head of a yeshivah from late 1577 to late 1585, where he wrote the last version of his presentation of the Lurianic system. In 1586 he returned to Safed, remaining there until 1592. In 1590 R. Vital was “ordained” as rabbi by his teacher R. Moses Alshekh, and then returned to Jerusalem in 1593 remaining several years, occasionally returning to Safed. His last move was to Damascus where he died. R. Vital was a prolific writer, his works encompassing Talmud, response, homilies, and even astronomy. R. Vital assembled his major writings into two vast works Ez ha-Hayyim and Ez ha-Da’at. The former is the inclusive name for all those writings in which he elaborated on the teaching of R. Isaac Luria. These works went through several versions and adaptations, for Vital began to arrange what he had heard from Luria immediately after his death, and remained absorbed in this task for more than 20 years.

This is the book, "Etz  Chaim", an exceptionally important Kabbalistic treatise. This copy is a Hebrew  manuscript  written  in  a  very fine cursive hand on paper.  The title is a drawn copy of an elaborate title from a printed book.  Several  mystical illustrations are depicted throughout the text. The pages have wide margins and have reinforced with silk fabric as the corrosive black ink used as eaten away text and discolored the paper in many pages. The book has wide margins. The many iIllustrations  include:  Several ornamented  frames with animals and plants in great detail throughout  the  volume;  an  interesting  figure  of  a  human  face  with  kabbalistic  connotations;  a  pair  of  hands  with  their  kabbalistic connotations;  several  Ilanoth  of  the  Ten  Sefiroth and finally an additional fold-out Ilan on three pages at the end with the ‘Holy Names’ according to  the  Ariza”l,  allowing  for  clarity  in  the  World  of  Atziluth.

The  skilled  copyist  was  Israel, the  son-in-law  of  Juspe  of  Altona.  This  assumption  can  be  verified  by  comparing  this  manuscript  with  another  copy  extant  in  the 

Bodleian Library, Oxford (Neubauer no. 1673). The text of this cop is based on the original arrangement by  R.  Meir  Poppers,  which is unlike the version of the first printed edition published inKoretz in 1742. The text is followed by four leaves of notation derived from the School of R. Moshe Zac. There are seven copies of this same text by the scribe Yisrael, all of which have the fold-out Ilan at the end. This, chronologically, is the second in the series. An interesting note is that outside of these seven manuscripts of the Etz Chaim, written between 1727 and 1774, there are no other manuscripts known from his hand.