Manuscript, Siddur Kavanot HaRashash – Scribe by Rabbi Shalom Yosef Alshech – Jerusalem, 19th/20th Century

Manuscript, Siddur Kavanot HaRashash – Scribe by Rabbi Shalom Yosef Alshech – Jerusalem, 19th/20th Century

Manuscript, Siddur Kavanot HaRashash – kavanot for the Shabbat prayers and for the Passover Seder, scribed by the kabbalist R. Shalom Yosef Alshech, head of the Yemenite Beit Din in Jerusalem. [Jerusalem, 19th/20th century].
Neat Oriental–Yemenite script.

R. Shalom son of Yosef HaLevi Alshech (1859–1944), prominent kabbalist and head of the Yemenite Beit Din in Jerusalem. Disciple of R. Chaim Korach and R. Yichye Badichi. Immigrated to Eretz Israel in 1891, where he helped establish the Yemenite institutions in Jerusalem. Kabbalist of the Beit El and Rechovot HaNahar yeshivot. Composed many piyyutim on yearning for Eretz Israel.

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.

[34] leaves. 21 cm. Good condition. Stains (including dark stains). Wear. Some worming. Original binding, detached and damaged.

Enclosed: piece of paper with kavanot, dated 1930.
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. An addendum at the end of his essay lists the manuscripts of Siddur HaRashash found in the Gross Family Collection. The present manuscript is listed there as no. 15.

Provenance: The Gross Family Collection, Tel Aviv, EI.011.014.