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Toledot Adam (The Generations of Adam)
Elijah Loanz
1734
This two-page spread from Elijah ben Moses Loanz’s Toledot Adam (The Generations of Adam) includes examples of some of the kabbalistic amulets and formulae for which he was famous.
This two-page spread from Elijah ben Moses Loanz’s Toledot Adam (The Generations of Adam) includes examples of some of the kabbalistic amulets and formulae for which he was famous.
Credits
Courtesy GFC Trust / William L. Gross.
Published in:The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.
According to the colophon, the scribe in Prague who produced the Klausen Book of Psalms, Shabbetai Sheftel ben Zalman Auerbach (d. 1738), was descended from a family expelled from Vienna in 1669/70…
According to the colophon, Natan Hammerschlag’s Ilan de-adam kadmon (Sefirotic Diagram of the First Man) was copied from the writings of Ḥayim Vital, the most prominent disciple of Isaac Luria…
Why is it that human beings encounter so many problems in life? Why are we beset with war and racism, political and ethnic conflicts, disharmony with our environment, and shattering events in our…
The family of the rabbi and kabbalist Elijah ben Moses Loanz traced its ancestry back to Rashi. Loanz was born in Frankfurt am Main, studied under many prominent rabbis, and himself served as rabbi in Hanua, Fulda, Friedberg, and Worms. In Worms, he was also a ḥazzan (sexton), preacher, and head of the yeshiva. Loanz became a famed kabbalist: his amulets were very popular, and various miracles were attributed to him. He also engaged in disputes with Christian priests and corresponded with the Christian Hebraist Johannes Buxtorf. Loanz composed many works, most of which were not printed in his lifetime and have survived in manuscript form. These include commentaries and supercommentaries on biblical books, commentaries on the Zohar and other kabbalistic works, as well as some secular and liturgical poetry (among them a poetic dispute between wine and water). Examples of his amulets have been preserved in collections reproducing these formulas. Loanz also helped to prepare Moses Isserles’s work Darkhe Moshe (The Ways of Moses) for publication.
According to the colophon, the scribe in Prague who produced the Klausen Book of Psalms, Shabbetai Sheftel ben Zalman Auerbach (d. 1738), was descended from a family expelled from Vienna in 1669/70…
According to the colophon, Natan Hammerschlag’s Ilan de-adam kadmon (Sefirotic Diagram of the First Man) was copied from the writings of Ḥayim Vital, the most prominent disciple of Isaac Luria…
Why is it that human beings encounter so many problems in life? Why are we beset with war and racism, political and ethnic conflicts, disharmony with our environment, and shattering events in our…