Manuscript, lengthy kabbalistic homilies, by the Sabbatian Abraham Miguel (Michael) Cardozo. [Sephardic script, North Africa?, ca. 18th century].
The present volume comprises several parts. It begins with a homily on the Four Cups by Abraham Miguel Cardozo, with an addendum to the homily concluding with a kabbalistic diagram.
This is followed by a work entitled "Questions and Answers on Derush HaNimtza'im", written in the form of a dialogue between two figures: Abraham Miguel Cardozo and Uriel. This part is presumably lacking the end.
The next part, which forms the majority of the manuscript, is entitled Derush HaNimtza'im.
Several marginal glosses.
Stamp on first page: "Yitzchak Gagin of Jerusalem".
Abraham Miguel Cardozo was a leader of the Sabbatian movement and one of its most prominent propagandists. Born in 1627 to a family of Marranos in the Iberian Peninsula, he was raised as a Christian. At the age of 21, he escaped (together with his older brother) to Italy, where he embraced Judaism. He began studying Torah under the rabbis of Venice, and later also studied kabbalah. He was a physician by profession, and traveled extensively through the cities of Italy and around the Mediterranean Basin: Venice, Livorno, Verona, Cairo, Tripoli, Tunis, Izmir, Constantinople, and others. Throughout his travels, he disseminated the teachings of the Sabbatian movement, and was expelled from several cities (Livorno, Constantinople, Tunis and others) after being excommunicated for his Sabbatian views. During his stay in Tripoli, he was appointed personal physician of Osman Pasha and Rejeb Bey, and earned the esteem of the local rabbis, who testified to his loyalty to Torah and mitzvot observance. From Tripoli, Cardozo moved to Tunis, yet was expelled from there too after the rabbis of Izmir battling Sabbatianism wrote to the rabbis of Tunis and instructed them to excommunicate him. In 1689, Cardozo reached Constantinople after hearing that Esther, widow of Shabbatai Zvi (who died in 1676), was offering to marry him. Cardozo became one of the main "prophets" of the Sabbatian movement (amongst the Dönmeh sect, Cardozo was regarded as a saint, equal in stature to Shabbatai Zvi and Nathan of Gaza). In this position, he was involved in fierce polemics with various figures, both members of the Sabbatian movement and rabbis and community leaders who opposed Sabbatianism. He composed many kabbalistic essays and homilies on the conception of G-d and the topic of Redemption, in which he constructs an entire theory of Sabbatian theology. He met fierce opposition from R. Yaakov Sasportas and R. Moshe Hagiz (who accused him amongst others of "signing as Messiah ben Efraim"; part of the polemic and the rabbinic opposition to Cardozo occurred in the framework of the battle against the Sabbatian Nechemia Hiya Hayyun). One of the books directed against Cardozo (which serves as an important source of his biography) is the book Merivat Kodesh by R. Eliyahu HaKohen of Izmir (published in Inyanei Shabbatai Zvi, by Aharon Freiman, Berlin 1913). In 1703, Cardozo wished to settle in Eretz Israel, yet the rabbis of Safed prevented him from entering the country and instead he settled in Egypt, where he was assassinated by his nephew during a dispute over money matters.
The present homilies, just like most of Cardozo's homilies, were never printed. Dr. Nissim Yosha conducted an important study on Cardozo and his teachings, and prepared Cardozo's works for print. Part of the research – on the biography and teachings of Cardozo – was published in the book Anus BeChavlei Mashiach (Yad Ben Zvi, Jerusalem 2016); the homilies were not printed.
[69] leaves. 19.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains. Tears and worming, affecting text in some places. Some leaves and gatherings detached. Old leather binding, damaged, without spine, detached.