Manuscript, Siddur Kavanot HaRashash – Salonika, Early 19th Century

Manuscript, Siddur Kavanot HaRashash – Salonika, Early 19th Century

Manuscript, Siddur Kavanot HaRashash – Kavanot of the Kedushah prayer, Kavanot of Malkot (lashes), and more. [Salonika, early 19th century].
Square and semi–cursive Oriental script, presumably by several writers. The manuscript opens with Shemot HaKelim D'Abiya. Several leaves with other selections.
Date at the top of the first page (in a different hand): 8th Iyar 1808.
On the front endpaper, ownership inscriptions (partially deleted).
Various inscriptions on the endpapers, including table of contents of "Ma'asiot" (tales).
Siddur HaRashash was a siddur with kabbalistic kavanot based on the writings of the Arizal and R. Chaim Vital, edited by the kabbalists of the Beit El yeshiva in Jerusalem, based on the siddur compiled by their teacher the Rashash – R. Shalom Mizrachi Sharabi, dean of the Beit El yeshiva in the mid–18th century. For many years, copyings of Siddur HaRashash were produced from accurate manuscripts proofread by the kabbalists in the yeshiva.
Prayer using the manuscripts of the siddur was the privilege of just a few kabbalists. In general, the kabbalists themselves produced various copyings of Siddur HaRashash for their personal use, or entrusted them to reliable kabbalists only. Each of these manuscripts bore the stamp of the kabbalist who copied it, through the emendations and additions he inserted.
For many years, the siddur was zealously and intentionally kept in manuscript form only, without being printed at all. Only in 1911–1916 was in published in six parts by several Ashkenazi kabbalists of Yeshivat Shaar HaShamayim in Jerusalem.

[39] leaves. Approx. 22 cm. Good–fair condition. Stains, including dampstains (two leaves with dark ink stains). Worming, affecting text. Original binding, partially repaired.

Regarding the development of Siddur HaRashash, its scribing and redaction by the kabbalists of the Beit El yeshiva, see essay by R. Moshe Hillel: The Rashash's Meditation Prayer Books, Between Tradition and Innovation, in: Windows on Jewish Worlds. Essays in Honor of William Gross, ed. Shalom Sabar, Emile Schrijver, Falk Wiesemann, pp 205–239.

Provenance: The Gross Family Collection, Tel Aviv, OT.011.030.