Sefer Magen David by the Radbaz – Kabbalistic Derushim on the letters of the Hebrew Alphabet – Amsterdam, 1719 – first edition – with scores of long and deep glosses, written in a learned language, with deep secrets of Kabbalah, written in an ancient handwriting from the mid-18th century by one of the great Kabbalists of Ashkenaz – glosses were never printed – exemplar of the Gaon Rabbi Yosef, son of the Gaon Rabbi Yitzchak Eizik Chaver.
The glosses before us deal mainly with ancient Kabbalah and the secrets of the “Shmitot” os “Sefer HaTemuna”. Mantions in passing a few of the Arizal’s Kabbalistic concepts.
From the content of the glosses it appears that the Mekubal who wrote them was an Ashkenazi Mekubal:
“And all my days I have wondered on the custom of our country, that they make in the Lulav 68 Aravot. Perhaps they don’t know the root of the things, and so we find in all (Shas?) two branches of Arava, and so in all the great and ancient Poskim,
and this is the custom in all the countries of Poland and Pihem, and the entire kingdom of Yishamel”. (p. 13a). It is known that only in Ashkenaz was there a custom yo use 68 Aravot, and from his ending it appears that he did not live in Poland, Pihem, or the Arab lands.
The glosses are written in a Rabbinical, flowery language.
In one of the glosses he writes: “And you, the learner, do not blame me, for it is not due to my wisdom that I have set out to write on the pages of this holy Sefer, only because of the preciousness of it, as in the concept of ‘make yourself markers, make yourself signs in the Torah’, and I have also not left the intentions of the author in any way” (15a); “And I am a gossipmonger, revealing a secret… and the Lord will set us to the truth” (24a).
In many places he writes that the author has left him a place to add.
On the title page and at the end of the Sefer is a signature: “Yosef son of the Gaon Rabbi Yosef Eizik Chaver”. It is possible that the Sefer came to him as an inheritance from his father’s estate.
The Gaon Rabbi Yosef Chaver (passed in 1873) officiated as Rabbi of Yadovna and other cities, wrote a few works, including “Sha’ar Yosef”, “Kiflayim Letushiya” – two elucidations on Shir Hashirim (Warsaw, 1873), “Zero’a Netuya” on the Hagadda, and several Seforim of eulogies.
[4], 52 pp. 20cm. large tear on the title page with damage to the text (Completed in handwriting). Stains and wear. Tears on bottom of two first pages. Original parchment-over-wood binding. Good-fair condition.
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