KABBALAH - FIRST EDITION OF THE BAHIR Three works bound together: - Mayane ha-yeshuah (מעיני הישועה), commentary on the book of Daniel by Isaac Abravanel, Amsterdam, 1647. -Sefer ha-Bahir (ספר הבהיר), FIRST EDITION, Amsterdam: Yehuda ben Mordecai and Samuel ben Moshe Ha-Levi 1651. Vinograd Amsterdam 186; Fuks 269; Mehlman 1094; Steinschneider 3423 -Sefer Maayan ha-hokhma (מעין החכמה), by Abraham Kalmankes of Lublin, Amsterdam, 1652. Fuks 233. Contemporary full calf binding, gilt fillets, small lacks; Some foxing. Handwritten 19th c. bookplate "Marc Lévy", and stamp "David Melki, Paris". This collection is especially noteworthy for its last two pieces, which are very rare. First, the first edition of the Sefer ha-Bahir, ("Book of Clarity") an anonymous mystical work attributed to a first-century rabbinic sage, Nechunia ben ha-Kanah, and named after the introductory comment: "And now men see not the light that shineth (bahir) in the heavens" (Job 37:21). The Bahir takes the form of an exegetical midrash on the opening chapters of Genesis. It is divided into sixty short paragraphs and takes the form of a dialogue between a master and his disciples. The Bahir contains commentaries explaining the mystical significance of biblical verses, the mystical significance of the shape of Hebrew letters, the mystical significance of cantillation signs and vowel points on letters, the mystical significance of statements in the Sepher Yetzirah ("Book of Creation") and the use of sacred names in magic. The work comprises two hundred paragraphs in the form of aphorisms. Each paragraph uses references to the Torah to flesh out its exposition. As with all Kabbalistic texts, the meanings are highly symbolic and open to numerous interpretations. Secondly, the Maayan ha-hokhma, also in its first edition, a kabbalistic treatise known to be a plagiarism of an older work, denounced as early as the 18th century. L. Fuks and R.G. Fuks-Mansfeld, Hebrew Typography in the Northern Netherlands 1585-1815 (Leiden, 1984), vol. 1, pp. 176-177, entry 233. See the detailed history of this edition: https://seforimblog.com/2014/05/a-mild-case-of-plagiarism-r-abraha/