ZACUTO, MOSES BEN MORDECAI. Iggeroth Ha’ReMeZ [letters of cabalistic content written by himself and others].
FIRST EDITION.
Appended at the end (ff.43-47) is “Elef Alfin” [a poem containing a thousand words, each beginning with the letter "Alef"] with a commentary.
ff. (4), 48.
Livorno (Leghorn), Abraham Issac Kastilow and Eliezer Sa’adon, 1780.
Cabalistic writer and poet; born about 1625; died at Mantua, 1697. It is generally supposed that his birthplace was Amsterdam, although, like the Amsterdam rabbi Saul Levi Mortheira, he probably lived in Venice, the residence of a brother named Nehemiah. He was a pupil of Morteira, on whose death he composed a long elegy. He was inclined to mysticism from his youth. To continue his Talmudic studies he went from Amsterdam to Posen or Poland, as is clear from the letter of recommendation which he gave at Venice in 1672 to the delegates who had come to Italy to collect money for the oppressed Polish communities. It was his intention to make a pilgrimage to Palestine, but on the way, he was persuaded to remain as rabbi in Venice, where he stayed, with the exception of a short residence in Padua, from 1645 until the summer of 1673. He was then called to Mantua at a fixed salary of 300 ducats, and remained there until his passing.
Zacuto applied himself with great diligence to the study of the Kabbalah under R. Chaim Vital’s pupil R. Benjamin Ha’Levi, who had come to Italy from Safed; and this remained the chief occupation of his life. He established a seminary for the study of the Kabbalah; and his favorite pupils, R. Benjamin Ha’Kohen and R. Abraham Rovigo, often visited him for months at a time at Venice or Mantua, to investigate kabbalistic mysteries.
