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Oct 30, 2017 (Your local time)
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LOT 33:

Siddur Ha'Shelah – First Edition – Segulah for Anyone Who Prays from This Siddur that "His Prayer will be Accepted" ...

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Sold for: $17,500
Start price:
$ 8,000
Estimated price:
$15,000 - $25,000
Auction house commission: 20%
VAT: On commission only

Siddur Ha'Shelah – First Edition – Segulah for Anyone Who Prays from This Siddur that "His Prayer will be Accepted" – Kabbalistic Commentary – Amsterdam 1717
Prayer book with the 'Sha'ar Ha'Shamayim' commentary by Rabbi Yesha'ayah Ha'Levi Horowitz. Amsterdam, 1717/ printed by Aharon Di Shlomo Antonis. The commentary is Kabbalistic, according to the doctrine of the Ari. Approbations by the most prominent rabbis at the beginning of the book.
First edition of one of the most well-known prayer books!
The Siddur contains prayers for the days of the week and for Sabbath and the Jewish holidays. With Yotzrot, Zulat, the Passover Haggadah, Slichot by "the great genius Rabbi Yesha'aya Segal who died in the Land of Israel and instructed to say them and they were said during the seven days of mourning after his death …" The Siddur also contains a special version of prayers for the ascent of the soul of the Shela!
The Siddur of the Shela contained for the first time precise Sephardic versions of the prayer beside the Ashkenazic one and it constituted a prototype of a combination of the Sephardic version and the Ashkenazic one.
With an additional copper-etched title page that includes illustrations of Avraham, Isaac and Jacob and more.
At the beginning of the Siddur, a preface by its author, the Shela Ha'Kadosh, which was written in Jerusalem at the end of his days and describes how the Siddur was written. The Siddur also contain the author's last will and testament regarding the printing of the Siddur.
The manuscript of the Siddur was kept by the Shela's grandsons with the original approbations. It was printed approximately a hundred years after its author's death by his grandson, who added a long preface.

The Segulah of the Siddur
The Shela Ha'Kadosh wrote his Siddur in order to print and distribute it, as he wrote to his sons in his last will and testament: "I thought of writing this holy composition so that it will be printed and distributed among the Jews, so that I will have a part in all the prayers of Israel".
He who prays from this Siddur is promised that his prayer will be accepted, as writes Rabbi Yoel Sirkis author of the Bach in his approbation at the beginning of the Siddur: "Undoubtedly, when this Siddur spreads among Israel, anyone who prays from it, his prayer will be accepted". This caused the Siddur to be most popular.
The First Rebbe of Sadigura, Rabbi Avraham Ya'akov Friedman, mentioned the Segulah of the Siddur in his approbation of the third edition of the Siddur: " Siddur Sha'ar Ha'Shamayim by the holy genius the Shela and as testified by the well-known genius author of the Bach … – we have no doubt that anyone who prays from it, his prayer will be accepted".
The holy Kabbalist Rabbi Naftali Katz, author of Semichat Chachamim, attributes the Segulah to the author of the Siddur himself, the Shela Ha'Kadosh, and he writes: "… the prayer book edited and written by the genius Rabbi Yesha'aya Segal author of "Shnei Luchot Ha'Brit" … had a great yearning for this Siddur and he ordered his descendants to print it in order to merit the public to pray with these intentions and he has promised that if one prays from this Siddur with its intentions, his prayers will be accepted …. Go see what the public does and the approbations of the great geniuses of the generation … Rabbi Yosel Sirkis author of Bayit Chadash and Rabbi Ya'akov Av Beit Din of Lublin … and the well-known genius Rabbi Yom Tov Lipman Heller author of Tosfor Yom Tov …

The copy before us
The copy before us contains seven short Kabalistic glosses, of single words, in ancient script. The copy, thus, had most likely belonged to one of our kabbalist rabbis.
The Siddur is extremely rare. There are no complete copies of it! The copy before us lacks the sections of Psalms, and Ma'amadot; however, it does contain three of the four rare leaves at the end of the book with the last will and testament of Rabbi Sheftil, the Shela's son. The missing leaf was completed with a nice photocopy.
[5], 4-335, 139 [1], 50-51 leaves. 21 cm.
Condition: Good-Very Good. The copy before us is reasonably preserved with time stains and stains of use on some of the leaves and small tears on some of the leaves. Some of the leaves have been completed from another copy. There is minor damage to the frame of the illustrated title page.
Original, leather binding. Slightly damaged spine. When the book was bound, the upper part of a few leaves was cut, omitting a part of the titles yet with no damage to the text of the Siddur. Single leaves have a slight omission which has been professionally restored.

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