Foundations of Faith: Sefer Derech Emunah, Important Gloss in the Holy Handwriting of the Mekubal from Brody
Padua, 1563. First Known Edition. Rare!
Sefer Derech Emunah, containing responsa on matters of faith in the Creator, according to Kabbalah.
Authored by the holy mekubal Rabbi Meir Ibn Gabai, who became renowned through his holy sefarim: Avodas HaKodesh, Tola’as Yaakov and Derech Emunah.
The work is mentioned by the Maharal of Prague, and the holy Shelah mentions the author in the same line as Rabbi Moshe Cordovero and the Arizal. Yasha"r of Candia writes about the sefer that it is "like a priceless pearl."
This is the first known edition. There is an earlier edition (Constantinople, 1560) of which only two pages survived, and it was likely never completed.
Padua, 1563. This was the first Hebrew sefer printed in Padua, out of only two Hebrew sefarim printed there in the 16th century!
Page Count: 28 leaves.
Size: 20 cm.
Condition: Good; artistic restorations and sealed holes (minor damage to text).
Bibliography: William Gross Collection, Tel Aviv.
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Copy of the holy mekubal Rabbi Avraham Ashkenazi of Brody, son-in-law of the holy Gaon Rabbi Mordechai of Radosh Av Beis Din of Paritzk author of the famous commentary on the Maharam Schiff:
Leaf 11 features a gloss in his handwriting (slightly cropped), in which he mentions his sefer ‘Dvar HaMelech’: "Fortunate is one who studies what I wrote in my holy sefer Dvar HaMelech [on the sec]ret of Hashem to those who fear Him…" Two parts of the sefer were printed in Livorno, 1805-1808.
Rabbi Avraham of Brody, who passed away in 1837, devoted his life to profound holiness and Chasidic practices. Notable among his austere spiritual disciplines was his practice of maintaining fasts that would span from one Shabbos to the next, a regiment he maintained for many decades.
At one point he moved from Poland to Italy and lived there for decades in the communities of Livorno, Trieste and Ferrara. He owned an important library, and his son first printed the Rashba’s chiddushim on Beitzah from a manuscript in his library.
"May the merit of his Torah protect us, for from the day of his arrival the community saw many miracles, and all the townspeople so testify." (Words of Rabbi Chananel Nepi, Min HaGenazim 13 p. 94)
"And they testified that in the merit of his Torah and holiness the city of Ferrara was saved several times from harsh and evil decrees." (Addition of Rabbi Mordechai Shmuel Girondi, ibid.)
