Img. ID: 575984
The following description was prepared by William Gross:
Shorshei Ha-Shemot is considered the most authoritative compilation about Kabbalah Ma'asit (practical Kabbalah), and is a standard reference for meditation exercises, spells, amulets, etc. The original author, Moshe Zacuto, systematically collected the holy names and arranged them alphabetically, explaining all the holy names with their origin and their powers. He also gives clear instructions to perform Yechudim (Unions) according to the Lurianic tradition, which he learned directly by the emissaries of Safed who came to Italy. He strives to find every possible use and meaning in every ancient manuscript that he could locate, up to the descriptions of the Angelic Alphabets.
In his Shorshei Hashemot (Book of the Roots of the Names) he included long quotations of the Fez Kabbalist R' Isaiah Bakish (16-17th c.) This version of the work is modified by the Rabbi Eliyahu Shapira, grandson of Natan Neta Shapira (1584-1683), in a printed book. This manuscript appears to be largely copied from that book.
In this manuscript, on the 12 pages prior to Zacuto's work is a treatise called "Sefer Ta'alumot u-Mekorot ha-Chochmah" by Shabtai Rafael ben Daniel Rafael, from Fez. Both of the works were written by the same scribe from Fez, Emmanuel ben Yonatan Monsano.
Moses ben Mordecai Zacuto (c. 1625 – 1 October 1697), also known by the Hebrew acronym ReMe"Z, was a rabbi, Kabbalist, and poet. Zacuto, who was born into a Portuguese Marrano family in Amsterdam, studied Jewish subjects under Saul Levi Morteira. He also studied secular subjects, such as the Latin language. As a pupil of Morteira, he may also have been, as a youth still in Amsterdam, a fellow student of Baruch Spinoza.
Rabbi Zacuto applied himself with great diligence to the study of the Kabbalah under Ḥayyim Vital's pupil Benjamin ha-Levi, who had come to Italy from Safed; and this remained the chief occupation of his life. He established a seminary for the study of the Kabbalah, and his favorite pupils, Benjamin ha-Kohen and Abraham Rovigo, often visited him for months at a time at Venice or Mantua, to investigate kabalistic mysteries. He composed forty-seven liturgical poems, chiefly Kabbalistic.