Sod Temunat HaOtiyot – Kabbalistic Work Handwritten by Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Shklow, Disciple of the Gaon of ...

Sod Temunat HaOtiyot – Kabbalistic Work Handwritten by Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Shklow, Disciple of the Gaon of Vilna – Safed, Ca. 1800s-1810s
Manuscript, work on the hidden meaning of the appearance of the Hebrew letters (Sod Temunat HaOtiyot), handwritten by the Kabbalist R. Menachem Mendel of Shklow, disciple of the Gaon of Vilna. [Safed, ca. 1800s-1810s].

Author's autograph, with deletions and additions. At the top of the first page, the opening heading: "With the help of the G-d of awesome deeds, I will begin G-d's works in letters and appearances".

Sod Temunat HaOtiyot – letters Alef to Kuf (the manuscript is cut off in the middle of the letter Kuf), was printed from the present manuscript in the book Beurei HaRamam MiShklov Al Temunat HaOtiyot (published by Machon HaGra, Jerusalem-New York, 2012; a full, color facsimile of the manuscript is printed at the back). According to the preface there, the work apparently went through two different versions, one of which is the present item – referred to there as "Edition I". The other version – "Edition II" – appears in other manuscripts and was printed in Kitvei HaGramam (Jerusalem, 2001).

The beginning of the work (from the introduction to the middle of the letter Alef, leaves 1-8a in the present manuscript) was printed by R. Shmuel Luria in Mayim Adirim (Warsaw, 1886, Likutim – pp. 157-162; Mayim Adirim, Jerusalem, 1987, Beurim VeLikutim – pp. 44-52), presumably from the present manuscript, which was sent to him by R. Naftali Hertz HaLevi, Av Beit Din of Jaffa. The present manuscript was presumably bound with the manuscript commentary on the Zohar and the commentary on Sefer HaPeliah appearing in the next item (see there at length).

According to R. Aryeh Leib Frumkin's testimony in his biography of R. Menachem Mendel of Shklow (Toldot Chachmei Yerushalayim, III, p. 160), the present work was written by R. Menachem Mendel while he was living in Safed (between ca. 1808-1815, before he settled in Jerusalem). During those years, R. Menachem Mendel would seclude himself in the mountains of the

Galilee to study Kabbalistic secrets, and he merited to have amazing revelations. R. Aryeh Leib Frumkin tells of the troubles R. Menachem Mendel suffered while establishing the Ashkenazi settlement in Eretz Israel, imprisonment and extortion by the Muslim rulers: "But despite all this, his heart did not turn away from the holy Torah for a moment, and he yearned to arrange his novellae and the culmination of his thought in his holy works on the revealed and hidden Torah. And he composed ten books on Kabbalah, as mentioned in the book Pe'at HaShulchan, but due to our many sins they were not published, and most of them were lost over time and disappeared, and what little is left is very deep and hard to understand, as it was his way to write briefly like his teacher, the Gaon". R. Aryeh Leib Frumkin goes on to recount that he had the merit of purchasing some of R. Menachem Mendel's works in manuscript, and at the top of the list he describes the present manuscript: "The works I merited to purchase, which are in his holy handwriting, are: 1) Commentary on the Zohar and on the appearances of the letters, which he wrote in Safed…".

[38] leaves. 21.5 cm. Fair condition. Stains. Open tears and extensive worming, heavily affecting text. Repaired with paper and sellotape. New binding.

Provenance:

1. Collection of R. Aryeh Leib Frumkin; see his book: Toldot Chachmei Yerushalayim, III, p. 160.

2. Collection of R. Naftali Hertz HaLevi, Av Beit Din of Jaffa (see next item).

3. Victor Klagsbald Collection, Paris-Jerusalem (who gave permission to print it in Beurei HaRamam, Jerusalem-New York, 2012).

4. Prof. Azaria Rein, the son-in-law of Victor Klagsbald, who was presented with the manuscript by his father-in-law.

Enclosed: Beurei HaRamam, Part I, on Temunat HaOtiyot, Jerusalem-New York, 2012.

R. Menachem Mendel of Shklow (ca. 1740-1827), prominent disciple of the Gaon of Vilna, leader of the first immigration of disciples of the Gaon of Vilna to Eretz Israel, and founder of the Ashkenazi Perushim community in Jerusalem. He attended the Gaon of Vilna in the final two years of his life, and received much Torah and Kabbalah from him. In describing this special period in his life, R. Menachem Mendel attests how he did not budge from the presence of the Gaon of Vilna, and how the latter opened up for him the gates of wisdom. He composed and edited several works of the Gaon of Vilna, such as the famous commentary on Mishlei, the commentary on the Passover Haggadah, and the glosses to Seder Olam. After the passing of his teacher, R. Menachem Mendel undertook the editing and publication of some of his manuscripts, including parts of the Gaon of Vilna's commentary to Shulchan Aruch. He served as rabbi in Khislavichi.

In 1808, he led the first group of disciples of the Gaon of Vilna that immigrated to Eretz Israel. He first settled in Tiberias, and later in Safed. In 1816, he relocated to Jerusalem, where he reestablished the Ashkenazi community. After much effort, he obtained building permits from the Turkish authorities to renovate the Hurva synagogue, and succeeded in raising funds to cover its old debts to the Arabs (only in Elul 1864 was the Hurva synagogue inaugurated, after many delays).

R. Menachem Mendel was especially famous for his deep, lofty understanding in Kabbalah, and during his time in Eretz Israel he composed several profound Kabbalistic works. His disciple, R. Yisrael of Shklow, writes in his introduction to Pe'at HaShulchan of these works and their author: "A close disciple of our holy master, my friend… the pious, great, famous Kabbalist R. Menachem Mendel of Jerusalem, author of ten holy books on the hidden Torah in manuscript" (Pe'at HaShulchan, Introduction, Safed 1837). Some of these works were published in 2001 under the title Kitvei HaGramam, and others were printed in the series Beurei HaRamam (Machon HaGra, Jerusalem-New York, 2012-2013) and in Mishnat Chassidim (Machon HaGra, Jerusalem-New York, 2006; new edition, Jerusalem-New York, 2021). These works of his on Kabbalah are also mentioned on his grave on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem: "The Kabbalist, famous Gaon in his generation, R. Menachem Mendel Ashkenazi, who established the foundations of Torah and service of G-d in the Holy Land, and authored the book Razei DiMeheimnuta…".

In Jerusalem, R. Menachem Mendel would sit throughout the day wrapped in his tallit and tefillin, studying Torah in holiness and purity. On Erev Shabbat, he would go outside the city to delve in Kabbalah in seclusion. In his writings, he describes heavenly visions and Torah secrets revealed to him, and how the soul of his teacher the Gaon of Vilna would appear to him to clarify Torah secrets, at the Western Wall, at Rachel's Tomb, and on the Mount of Olives. The elders of Jerusalem would relate that R. Menachem Mendel was capable of locating the ashes of Moshe's red heifer; that every year, on the 9th of Av, he would see two black pillars over the Temple Mount; and other such wondrous stories (R. Aryeh Leib Frumkin, Toldot Chachmei Yerushalayim, III, p. 161, in the name of R. Yaakov Moshe Charlap). He was a fierce opponent of Chassidut his entire life (though interestingly, one of his Kabbalistic works, Menachem Tzion, Przemyśl 1885, was published by prominent Galician Rebbes, who mistakenly took it as the teachings of R. Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk, who had also lived in Eretz Israel).