Tuesday, November 18, 2003

A KABBALAH MS LOOTED BY THE NAZIS HAS BEEN RECOVERED.

Manuscript Looted by Nazis to Be Returned (Acron Beacon Journal)
JENNIFER FRIEDLIN
Associated Press

NEW YORK - A 14th-century Jewish manuscript seized by the Nazis from a library in Vienna 65 years ago will be returned to Austria after it turned up in a New York auction house.

The Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement division is scheduled to present the rare Kabbalistic manuscript valued at over $68,000 to Jewish Community Organization of Vienna at a news conference on Tuesday.

[...]

A description from the auction catalogue says the Hebrew manuscript is an early version of a form of the Sepher Yetzirah, or "Book of Formation," described as the "oldest and most esoteric of all Kabbalistic texts." Kabbala is an ancient Jewish mystical tradition.

[...]


The oldest certainly: specialists date the Sepher Yetzirah to anywhere from the Mishnaic period to something like the ninth or tenth century. But I wouldn't want to try to decide which Kabbalistic work is the most esoteric.


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