É. Apor (ed.): David Kaufmann Memorial Volume: Papers Presented at the David Kaufmann Memorial Conference, November 29, 1999, Budapest.

RICHLER, Benjamin: Some Observations on Weisz's Catalogue of the Kaufmann Collection

BENJAMIN RICHLER Catalogue no. A 229 Described as an anonymous kabbalistic work, the treatise is Samuel Gallico's Assis Rimmonim (until ch. 31). Catalogue nos. A 230-232 These three MSS contain works by the Shabbatean Abraham Miguel Cardozo (1626-1706), born in Spain to a Marrano family who returned to Judaism in his twenties after leaving for Italy. He had studied medicine and worked for a while as a physician, but later began a life of wandering which led him to Tunis and Constantinople. He was attracted to the messianism of Shabbetai Zevi and composed many tracts in which he developed a personal system of theology. His works are extant in many MSS found in various libraries. However, because these three Kaufmann MSS were never properly identified in print - Weisz even characterized the Sefardic-Oriental script of the MSS as Yemenite - scholars never referred to them in their studies of Cardozo. Gershom Scholem, apparently, was not aware of their existence, and, even Nissim Yosha, who wrote an MA thesis on Cardozo's theology which was submitted in 1985, failed to list the Kaufmann MSS in his bibliography, even though the MSS were identified and entered in the IMHM card-catalogue in 1979. Catalogue no. A 230 Weisz lists the correct name of the work Derushei ha-Kinnuim but failed to identify the author, Abraham Cardozo. This is hardly surprising as this work exists in only one other MS in the Jewish Theological Seminary Library in New York, and at the time Weisz was compiling his catalogue the work was unknown. In the list of Cardozo's writings in the article on him in the Jewish Encyclopedia

, which was published while Weisz was compiling his catalogue, no mention is made of this work. It was published from the JTS MS by Gershom Scholem in 1933 (

Abhandlungen zur Erinnerung an Hirsch Perez Chafes

, Vienna 1933, pp. 324-50). Needless to say, Scholem was not aware that another MS existed in the Kaufmann Collection. Catalogue no. A 231 Another volume of derushim (homilies) by Cardozo including Derush ha-Ikkarim and Derush Amen, which Weisz listed as anonymous works. Catalogue no. A 232 Weisz correctly listed the title of Derush Boker de-Avraham written on pp. 37-143 of this MS, but not the author Cardozo. Catalogue no. A 236 The mystical commentary on the Merkavah found on pp. 1-108 of this MS is by the kabbalist Jacob b. Jacob ha-Kohen. This work is found in over thirty other MSS. 22