General

Title

Germany (Berlin), Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz: Hs. or. 14118

Summary

This ilan, comprised of four parchment sheets, is a unicum Great Tree, that may be classified as a type EZP Great Tree. The parchment rotulus exhibits significant physical degradation, most notably severe, jagged material loss along the right margin of the top third that impacts text and diagrams, alongside heavy darkening at the top and bottom extremities. This ilan displays an anomalous structure, in which the Z module is positioned above the P module. All other known Great Trees place P (primarily representing Adam Kadmon) above Z (primarily representing Arikh Anpin). Moreover, P and Z have been rendered in a unique manner: in the upper section of Z ( Z13), element E has been substituted for the head of Arikh Anpin. The continuation of Z ( Z14) follows immediately thereafter; it too lacks the head of Arikh Anpin. The modifications of P in this ilan are even more pronounced, escalating to an extreme visual and textual deconstruction characterized by radical structural disorder. The ilan opens and closes with content based on texts and diagrams from the book Va-yakhel Moshe (Dessau, 1699; Zolkiew, 1741). It shares this feature with the opening of the Tree of Holiness (Jerusalem, NLI, Ms. 4=9787), which includes a visualization of the Saruqian cosmogonic Malbush (garment) derived from the same source, albeit in a significantly more developed form. The use of element E in place of the head of Arikh in Z13 found in this ilan is also indebted to Va-yakhel Moshe, in which E is found as a woodcut (in both editions). The long textual unit that follows P is also taken from Va-yakhel Moshe. Relevant links: https://stabikat.de/Record/166328587X https://qalamos.net/receive/DE1Book_manuscript_00050957

Hand description

Ashkenazic square and cursive

Identifier

Hs. or. 14118

Repository

Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz

Country

Berlin

Settlement

Germany

Creation time

Date

ca. 1700