Yonath Eilem [kabbalistic treatise]

FANO, MENACHEM AZARIAH DA.

Italy

17th century

(Partial Autograph) Manuscript in Hebrew, written in neat cursive Italian hand on paper. Wide margins.

A NEAT AND COMPLETE COPY OF YONATH EILEM WITH AUTOGRAPH NOTATIONS AND CORRECTIONS BY THE AUTHOR. R’ Menachem Azariah of Fano edited this manuscript, he made corrections and added glosses in the margins. It is this corrected version which was first published in Amsterdam, 1648, one of ten Kabbalistic treatises, collectively entitled Asarah Ma’amaroth. R. Menachem Azariah (1548-1620), of a well-to-do banking family in Bologna, Italy, was first a follower of the Cordoveran system of Kabbalah but afterward, under the influence of an elusive figure, R. Israel Sarug, switched his allegiance to the Lurianic school. The propagation of kabbalah emanating from Safed in Europe was largely due to his prolific efforts. The title cites the words of the “Shela’h HaKadosh,” R. Isaiah Horowitz, who advised a colleague to attach himself to this work, which is “pleasing in the eyes of God and man.” See Robert Bonfil, New Information on Rabbi Menahem Azariah da Fano and his Age” (Hebrew) in: Studies in the History of Jewish Society in the Middle Ages and in the Modern Period [Jacob Katz Festschrift] (1980), pp. 98-135.