Zohar Ḥadash

All notes by Chaim Meiselman: notes TThis volume is a later printing of the volume properly-named 'Zohar Ḥadash' but the first with the emendations and corrections as presented here; it had been previously printed in Venice by Geronimo Bragadin. This volume was inaugural for the Zohar bibliography as far as the copying and editing are concerned, and is recorded as being the work of Isaac b. Abraham of Neustadt. Isaac of Neustadt also published the Sefer Razi’el Hamalakh (Razi’el the Angel) the same year, in the same quarto size as this volume; it is possible that the Zohar Hadash and Razi’el were meant originally to be published together, as Steinschneider implicitly notes, they were in the end printed separately. From reading the title and Haskamot, it appears as if the uniform printing was the intention of the publisher. Article on the printing from The Jewish Encyclopedia by Kaufmann Kohler and Isaac Broyde: ISAAC BEN ABRAHAM OF NEUSTADT: Dutch cabalist; lived at Amsterdam in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He was an assistant rabbi at Amsterdam, where he devoted himself to the editing of cabalistic works. In 1701 he published, from a manuscript he had in his possession, the "Sefer Raziel ha-Gadol" of Eleazar of Worms, in the preface to which Isaac expresses his firm belief that the book possesses the virtue of protecting from fire the house in which it, or a copy of it, is kept. He reedited the cabalistic treatises "Sefer ha-Malbush," "Sefer Noaḥ," "Sefer ha-Mazzalot," "Shi’ur Ḳomah," "Tefillot," and "Ma’asch Bereshit." In the same year he edited and published "Zohar he- Ḥadash," "Midrash ha-Ne’elam," "Sitre Torah," "Tiḳḳunim," "Liḳḳuṭim," and the Zohar on the Five Scrolls. His son Löb added to the "Zohar he- Ḥadash" a vocabulary to the two Zohars, extracted from the "Imre Binah" of Issachar Bär. Edition printed with lesser-quality paper and ink, appearing as a lower-quality German print of the time. Specimen of the printing often contain errors, including printing mistakes, unsorted leaves, and ink-bleeding from the printing process. Haskamot: Solomon de Olivieira of the Spanish-Portugese Community in Amsterdam, dated 15 Shevat 1700; Solomon Ayyalon of the same, dated 1701; Yosef-Shemuel of Krakow, presiding over the Frankfurt Rabbinate, 12 Av 1701; Moses-Yehuda b. Kalonymus ha-kohen of the Ashkenazic Community in Amsterdam, 15 Tamuz 1701; Gavri’el b. Yehuda-Loeb of Krakow, presiding over the Metz Rabbinate, Sivan 1701; Shemaiah b. Yissakhar-Ber of Berlin, 1701; Efraim Röeds of "Lissa" (=Leszno, Poland), dated 14 Iyyar 1701; Yehudah b. Mosheh of Glogau, 1701; Me’ir of ’Raudnitz’ (=Roudnice nad Labem, Czech Republic) , presiding over the rabbinates in Wesel and Kleve, 24 Tamuz 1701. Neustadt on the title is referred to ’Ir Ḥadash’, i.e. "New City", which is the generative translation of Neustadt; the hidden meaning is to connect this author with the Zohar Ḥadash, i.e. "The New Zohar". references Steinschneider, M., Cat. Libr. Hebr. Bodl., no. 3500. Zedner, J., Catalogue of Hebrew Books in the British Museum, p. 706.