Megaleh Amukot, 252 kabbalistic interpretations of the VaEtchanan prayer, by R. Natan Nata Shapira, Rabbi of Kraków and primary disseminator of kabbalah teachings in Ashkenazic lands. Kraków: Menachem Nachum Meisels, 1637. First edition.

First edition of one of the earliest and most prominent kabbalistic works printed in Poland.

The book opens with forewords by the author's sons, R. Shlomo (editor of the book) and R. Moshe. In his lengthy and poetic foreword (with the embedded names "Natan" and "Shlomo", the author's father), R. Shlomo offers many details on his father's life and his other writings, including that his father initially intended to compose one thousand commentaries on the VaEtchanan prayer, but he received a heavenly directive to only reveal 252.

R. Natan Nata Shapira (1585-1633) was one of the greatest Torah scholars of his times and one of the leading kabbalists in Ashkenazic lands (second-generation disciple of the Arizal). A grandson of Maharnash (R. Natan Shapira, author of Imrei Shefer and Mevo She'arim), he was renowned for his great holiness, and many wondrous tales of revelations of ruach hakodesh have been related about him over the generations. In his foreword to Megaleh Amukot, his son R. Shlomo Rabbi of Sataniv writes that Elijah revealed himself to his father; R. Efraim Zalman Margulies also notes this fact in his preface to the Lviv edition of Megaleh Amukot. R. Yeshayahu Bassan, teacher of the Ramchal, in his famous letter to the Venice rabbis, counts the author of Megaleh Amukot as one of the special individuals who merited learning from angels. His famous disciple is R. Shabtai Katz, the Shach. R. Shlomo, son of the Megaleh Amukot, writes in his approbation to the Shach that his father "would amuse himself with… R. Shabtai Katz… who was like a son raised by him and born to him". After his passing, he appeared in a dream to R. Shimshon of Ostropoli to teach him Torah secrets, as R. Shimshon writes in his letter: "By oath… this past night in the week of VaEra, I saw the great R. Nata of Kraków, author of Megaleh Amukot, in my dream at night, and he told me that the explanation of this stich… has lofty secrets". His books and writings were cherished by kabbalistic and Chassidic leaders.

Many leading rabbis trace their lineage to the author, R. Natan Nata: R. Yehonatan Eibeshitz (who calls him "my ancestor the great kabbalist, the holy man of G-d, author of Megaleh Amukot, second-generation disciple of the Arizal"), the Knesset Yechezkel, Rebbe Pinchas Shapiro of Korets, Rebbe Mordechai of Neshchiz (who says of him in his approbation to the Lviv edition: "a man in whom the spirit of G-d spoke…"), the Tiferet Shlomo of Radomsk, the Chidushei HaRim, R. Meir Shapiro of Lublin and many others.

Early ownership inscription on title page: "I purchased this book for… so says the scribe I---". Glosses.