Manuscript, Arizal Siddur Chemdat Yisrael by Rabbi Shmuel Vital – Egypt, Ca. 1720

Manuscript, Arizal Siddur Chemdat Yisrael by Rabbi Shmuel Vital – Egypt, Ca. 1720

Manuscript, Arizal siddur – Chemdat Yisrael, Part II, compiled by R. Shmuel Vital. [Egypt, ca. 1720].

Neat Oriental semi-cursive script, with initial words in square script, some hollow. One of the early manuscripts of the work, written in the generation following the author's, probably in Egypt.

We know of the first part of the work, written by the same scribe, which belonged to R. Yitzchak Zerachiah Azulai, which was passed onto his son the Chida. That manuscript came into the possession of Rebbe Yechezkel Shraga Halberstam of Shinova, based on which the work was printed in Munkacs, 1901 (see introduction to that edition). The same first part is now in the library of the Rebbe of Sanz in Netanya. The colophon at the end has the conclusion of writing dated to 1720, indicating that Part II, the present manuscript, was written at approximately the same time.

The present Part II was not in the possession of the Munkacs printers, who printed instead a different "Part II" that they supposed was the continuation of R. Shmuel Vital's siddur, but was in fact another work. Only in 2016 was this rectified in the Ahavat Shalom edition of the work, which had the work printed correctly based on several manuscripts from the period, including the present manuscript (see at length in preface to that edition, which labels the manuscript belonging to the Chida as the fifth and the present manuscript as the sixth).

The present manuscript is lacking 11 leaves at the beginning. The last leaf (with the author's colophon on finishing the work in 1663) was also lacking, but was supplied by another hand, ca. the date of writing of the manuscript.

On margins of some pages, glosses and corrections in several hands.

12-184 leaves (lacking 11 leaves at beginning). 21.5 cm. Good-fair condition (most leaves in good condition). Stains, including dark stains (many food and wine stains to Passover Haggadah section). Open marginal tears to several leaves, repaired with paper filling. Several leaves repaired with transparent paper coating. New binding.