Obj. ID: 38434  Shnei Luchot ha-Brit by Yeshaya ben Avraham Halevi Horowitz, Warsaw, 1852

This text was prepared by William Gross:

The renowned multipartite ethical and kabbalistic work by R. Isaiah b. Abraham ha-Levi Horowitz (“Ha-Shelah ha-Kadosh”). The work exerted great influence upon the life of Jews of Eastern Europe and helped more than any other book to introduce the Kabbala in daily religious life.
R. Horowitz (c.1565 to 1630) was born in Prague to an illustrious rabbinic family. At an early age, he was recognized as a great Gaon, and he took part in the meetings of the Rabbis of the Vaad Arba Ha Arotzos (Council of the Four Countries), together with the greatest Rabbis of his generation. He held rabbinical positions in various communities such as Dubno, Ostraha, Posen, Cracow, Vienna and Frankfurt, where he headed great Yehsivos and had large numbers of students. He eventually moved to Eretz Israel and became rabbi of the Ashkenazic community of Jerusalem.
His monumental Shnei Luchot ha-Brit, completed in Jerusalem, was begun as an ethical will, for his children only, while he was still in Prague. However, it grew continuously until it was a large work, becoming one of the masterpieces of Jewish literature. It consists of two parts: Derech Chayim [Path of Life], containing laws according to the order of the Festivals in the calendar, and Luchot ha-Brit, summarizing the 613 commandments in the order in which they appear in the Bible. Horowitz draws upon the vast Halachic, homiletical, and mystical literature of his predecessors and contemporaries to provide guidance for living an ethical life. It includes mystical notions, which by now had started to be the dominant form of ethical writing.
First printed in Amsterdam, in 1648-49, the work has been much republished, and is as popular today as when it first appeared.
This edition includes an illustration of the Temple (fol.83v).