Baranovich Online
Lot 103:
Atzat Ahitophel, a series of steps designed to provide an answer to any question, copied by Obadiah son of Jacob. Handwritten in a clear script on thick paper. [Yemen]. 1939, 18 pages (excluding partially written sheets and endpapers), 12 cm.
This is a manuscript version of the work Goralot L’Ahitophel, first printed in Jerusalem, 1866. This book was particularly popular amongst Jews in Muslim countries and consists of a prayer, after which one randomly placed the finger on any one of a series of Divine names. It is followed by an index for decoding the reply.
These texts were at the core of a major polemic that engulfed the entire Yemenite Jewish community at the end of the 19th century, and for the next fifty years. The Yemenite Jewish community had traditionally followed the decisions of Maimonides, both in halacha and philosophical thought. From the 16th century on, kabbala made its entry into Yemenite thought, and slowly, many Jews left the rationalism of Maimonides and began to practice the mysticism of kabbala. By the 19th century, most of the Yemenites leaned toward the mystical and folkloristic, with oaths, demons and spirits, astrology and the like dominating their culture. R. Yichye Kapach came out strongly against this mystical form of Judaism and tried to restore, what he believed, was the authentic Yemenite tradition – the rational thought of Maimonides – to its rightful place. The polemic reached its peak in 1931, when R. Yichye Kapach printed his Milchamot Hashem, an attack on the practice of kabbala. With the establishment of the State of Israel, the subsequent aliya of most of Yemenite Jewry, and their absorption into greater Israeli society, this controversy died down.
This manuscript presents the mystical side of Yemenite Jewry. Written completely in Hebrew.
Additional biographical information about the manuscript and scribe appear in the colophon on the last page.
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