Manuscript, Sefer HaKavanot – Venice, 1656 – Copy of Kabbalist Rabbi Natan Nata Hannover, With His Signature and Many Handwritten Glosses – Manuscript from the Library of the Imrei Emet of Ger
Manuscript, Sefer HaKavanot Part II, on Shabbat, festivals and additional topics, the Arizal's kabbalistic teachings by his disciple R. Chaim Vital. Venice, [1656].
Copy of the kabbalist R. Natan Nata Hannover, with his signature and many handwritten glosses by him – manuscript from the library of the Imrei Emet of Ger.
Fine cursive Italian script (with titles and initial words in square script). Illustrated title page, in the center of which is written: "Sefer Kavanot Part II… practices of Shabbat, Rosh Chodesh, Chanukah and Purim and all the festivals, ancient and sweet words received from the Arizal which were sent here from Safed, written here in Venice the capital city, [1656]".
Under arch on title page, signature of kabbalist R. Natan Nata Hannover: "G-d granted me this book, Natan Nata son of the martyr R. Moshe Hannover Ashkenazi".
Before the title page are bound two leaves with indexes handwritten by R. Natan Nata Hannover. He refers to these leaves in an inscription at the top of the first leaf: "Says Natan Neta Naaman: I found this order in an old book of Kavanot, but it is ordered incorrectly and not chronologically… Afterwards I managed to find the correct order possessed by the kabbalist R. Moshe Zacuto and I considered annotating the pages according to that correct order. Afterwards I decided to write the correct order on an independent leaf, which is the previous leaf; see there".
Hundreds of glosses throughout the manuscript, in the margins and between the lines, including dozens of lengthy glosses, handwritten by R. Natan Nata, most in semi-cursive Ashkenazic script and others in cursive Ashkenazic script. He begins some of his glosses with his name or nickname, such as: "Says Natan Neta Naaman…", "Neta Naaman", "it appears in my humble opinion, Natan Ashkenazi", and more.
Apparently, the present Sefer HaKavanot was compiled by R. Natan Nata, and was written by a Venetian Jew at his direction. In several places, R. Natan Nata added a reference to the source, for example on p. 52a, after the title of the section relating to Shavuot, R. Natan Nata added: "I found this in the writings of my teacher R. Moshe Zacuto citing R. Binyamin HaLevi [of Safed]". Additional titles with this text appear on pp. 62a and 65a. Several sections in the book were written by R. Natan Nata himself, such as the Kavanot for blowing the shofar, as well as a section of the commentary on the Haggadah.
In several places written in the copyist's hand, there are quotations from the kabbalists whom R. Natan Nata met in Venice, such as on p. 45b: "I found written in the Kavanot of R. Natan Shapiro Yerushalmi…". On p. 52b, at the end of one of the sections: "I received a tradition from R. Binyamin HaLevi not to use these kavanot on Shabbat".
At the end of the manuscript (at the end of Kavanot HaZakan), R. Natan Nata concludes the copying, in his own handwriting, with verses of blessing: "Happy is the people who has such… For the Lord listens to the destitute… And He does not despise the poverty of the poor… and He listens to them when they entreat Him. Amen Selah. Blessed is the Lord forever, Amen and Amen". On the following leaf is the beginning of a copying in Ashkenazic script, titled "This belongs above in the laws of Shabbat".
It is unclear to us how the present manuscript relates to R. Natan Nata's work Neta Naaman, of which we possess only the fifth part entitled Shaarei Tzion (see below at length). As stated above, the expression "Neta Naaman" appears in some of the glosses in the present manuscript, which may be one of the lost parts of R. Natan Nata's work (on R. Natan Nata Hannover's recension, see: R. Yosef Avivi, Kabbalat HaAri, II, pp. 748-750).
The present work contains chapters on: Shabbat, Motzaei Shabbat, Rosh Chodesh, Chanukah, Tu BiShevat, Purim, Pesach and the Exodus from Egypt, the Omer, commentary on the Haggadah, Sefirat HaOmer, seventh day of Pesach, Shavuot, 40 days of Elul, Rosh Hashanah, kavanot for the shofar blowing, kavanot for the shofar, secret of the shofar, Yom Kippur, lashes, Sukkot, Hoshana Rabba, secret of the sukkah, lulav and etrog, on the sukkah, Simchat Torah, travel, holiness, shemitah, purifying the soul, kavanot for study, kavanot for all the days of the week, the reading of the Torah, attainment of wisdom, the weight of the ketoret, tzedakah, plague, seven circuits for the dead, phases of the moon, immersion, ritual slaughter, positive interpretation of a dream, Torah reading for Shabbat, yichud for Nishmat, Amidah, the prayer as a whole, principle for zivugim, the prayer of R. Yeisa Sava before eating, kavanot for eating, Birkat HaMazon, blessings for pleasures and mitzvot, kavanot for corners of the hair and beard, Aleinu, prayers for mercy in tikunim of Atik DeAtikin.
In several places appear glosses (kavanot and verses) in Sephardic script, by an unidentified writer.
Signatures on title page: "Yitzchak Altaras" (crossed out), "Shlomo son of R. Yitzchak Altaras". Additional signature of R. Shlomo Altaras on leaf following title page. R. Yitzchak Altaras, an important member of the Venetian community. His son R. Shlomo Altaras immigrated from Venice to Split (Bosnia, present-day Croatia). He later emigrated to Eretz Israel, settling in Aleppo on the way. R. Shlomo Altaras brought with him books and manuscripts, mainly kabbalistic, from Italy and Bosnia (see: R. Moshe Hillel, Ohel Re'em, p. 162, note 73).
On last leaf, ownership inscriptions in Sephardic script: "This book belongs to me, R. Shmuel Florentin son of Yaakov…" (we know of a R. Chaim Shmuel son of Yaakov Florentin, a 17th-century Torah scholar in Thessaloniki, d. 1719, author of Me'il Shmuel, Thessaloniki 1725).
The present manuscript was later made part of the famous library of Rebbe Avraham Mordechai Alter, the Imrei Emet of Ger, which disappeared in the Holocaust. The present manuscript was listed in catalogs of books and manuscripts in the Rebbe's library, which were put up for sale by the Alter Hebrew Book bookshop founded by the Rebbe together with his sons-in-law R. Yitzchak Meir Alter and R. Yitzchak Meir Levin. These catalogs were printed in Warsaw in 1901 and in New York in 1921. A detailed description of the present manuscript, with an added citation from the title page and the glosses of R. Natan Nata, appears in the catalogue of manuscripts published by R. Moshe Hillel, Ohel Re'em – listing of manuscripts in the collection of Rebbe Avraham Mordechai Alter of Ger, Kehilot Yisrael, Jerusalem 2018, no. 125, pp. 231-232 (see there at length on the history of the library, the Rebbe's bookshop and the above catalogs). At the beginning of this entry's description, the present manuscript is described as: "Kavanot Part II – a different recension than the seven books of Kavanot listed by the Chida in his book, who did not see it" (i.e. this Kavanot compiled by R. Natan Nata differs from the seven recensions of Sefer HaKavanot listed by the Chida in Shem HaGedolim [Maarechet Sofrim, entry Kavanot], apparently indicating it was unknown to him. R. Moshe Hillel, ibid.). The fact that this manuscript from the library of the Rebbe of Ger was preserved, was hitherto unknown.
R. Natan Nata Hannover, author of Shaarei Tzion (see Lot 179), born in Iziaslav, was a survivor of the Chmielnicki massacres of 1648-1649 (see Lot 133), in which his father R. Moshe was martyred. He authored Yeven Metzulah, a chronicle of the hardships suffered by the Jews during those times. During his wanderings he reached Italy, where he met the leading kabbalists of his day, the first generation to produce recensions of the Arizal's teachings in Eretz Israel and Italy. He stayed first in Livorno, where he met R. Chaim HaKohen of Aleppo, a disciple of R. Chaim Vital who came to Italy in order to print his book Mekor Chaim, who taught him some of the Arizal's kabbalistic teachings, as R. Natan Nata recounts in the introduction to his Shaarei Tzion: "G-d had me wander from my birthplace… until I reached Italy, a city full of sages and scribes called Leghorn [=Livorno]… When I was there for about a full year, 1654… G-d inspired a holy man to pass by us, R. Chaim Kohen, a close disciple of R. Chaim Vital, and I received this splendid science from him in person, and he transmitted to me several good novel ideas that he received from his teacher which are not mentioned in Etz Chaim…".
R. Natan Nata later met the kabbalist R. Natan Shapiro, who came to Italy in 1655 as an emissary from Jerusalem, and R. Natan Nata accompanied him to Venice: "Afterwards a holy man from Jerusalem came to me with many bundles of writings of the Arizal, the kabbalist R. Natan Shapiro, and I followed him to the great city of Venice…". In Venice, R. Natan Nata was chosen as a member of the "great yeshiva", where he studied for two years (1655-1656). He states that during his stay in Venice, he associated with and studied under the leading Torah scholars and kabbalists, R. Shmuel Aboab and R. Moshe Zacuto (the Ramaz), as well as R. Binyamin HaLevi of Safed. In Venice he copied their kabbalistic writings: "In addition, I copied the Etz Chaim from them, and the glosses on the Zohar, Tikunim and Zohar Chadash…". From his meeting with the leading transmitters and compilers of the Arizal's kabbalistic teachings, R. Natan Nata came to possess many works on the Arizal's teachings. On the basis of these works, R. Natan Nata authored a comprehensive work, Neta Naaman, condensing the Arizal's kabbalistic teachings based on the works he possessed, as he goes on to state in the introduction: "And I authored a fine work called Neta Naaman… and I myself wrote and transmitted all the booklets of Etz Chaim extant outside of Eretz Israel and novel laws from the Zohar, Tikunim and Zohar Chadash and other kabbalistic books concisely, and I divided them into five parts corresponding to five partzufim, as I explained at length in the introduction to my book Neta Naaman… And thus I begin Part V… I called the name of this book Shaarei Tzion…". Of all five parts of his book, only the fifth part has reached us – Shaarei Tzion, which was published twice in his lifetime (in Prague 1662 and Amsterdam 1671; subsequently printed in dozens of editions). In 1662 R. Natan Nata reached Iași, Romania, where he served as local rabbi and "Rabbi and yeshiva dean of Wallachia" (as he is called on the title page of the second edition of the book). R. Natan Nata is said to have subsequently reached Uherský Brod, Moravia (present-day Czech Republic), where he was killed in 1683 when soldiers attacked the Jewish community during the Hungarian revolt against the Ottomans.
Complete manuscript. [2], 23, 23-96, 96-100, 102-112, [1] leaves (some misfoliation; leaves 46-49 are blank). Approx. 28 cm. Good condition. Stains. Light wear. Worming, slightly affecting text. New binding.
