Margin of Error: A search for words lost before 1784 CE by

excessive trimming of folio 37 in the Kabbalah manuscript

Moscow-Gnzburg 775 (14-15th century CE)
Lloyd D. Graham
The Hebrew manuscript Moscow-Gnzburg 775 (Russian State Library, Moscow)
is best known for containing the only complete copy of Ozar Hayyim,1 an important
Kabbalah work by Rabbi Isaac of Acre (Israel, Spain and North Africa, 13th-14th
century CE).2 However, the initial pages of Moscow-Gnzburg 775 (catalogued as
The Functional Names, Making Amulets, Spells, etc.: Excerpts from Practical
Kabbalah)3 are independent of this work. A point of connection is that some of the
contents of the initial codex are given in the name of Rabbi Isaac, including the
earliest known description in Judaism of the seven Kabbalistic signs or seven
Seals,4 a set of symbols which even today enjoys widespread popularity in
talismans from the Middle East and beyond.5
Folio 37b of Moscow-Gnzburg 775 gives the earliest known exegesis of the
Divine Name associated with each of the seven Seals, but at some point the page
was damaged by excessive trimming that removed text close to its right-hand edge.
The angle of the cut means that the problem is more severe towards the bottom of
the page, and the overall result is the loss of several significant words and phrases
whose identity cannot be guessed (Fig. 1). It is now evident that Rabbi Abraham
Alnaqar used this page or a copy thereof as a source when, in Algiers in 1784
Fig. 1. Folio 37b of Moscow-Gnzburg 775,
optimal composite of a light and dark scan from
the IMHM; manuscript image shown with
permission of the Russian State Library, Moscow.
Progressively increasing losses from the right hand
margin are accentuated by the blue line, which is
true to the vertical. Words referred to in this report
as difficult to read or interpret are also flagged
(blue asterisk and underline).

Giluy Milta B'alma (Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts weblog), gmb042 (7 April, 2013)

CE, he prepared his expanded edition of Rabbi Moses Zacutos encyclopedic

Shorshei ha-Shemot (Ms. Heb. 82454, National Library of Israel).6 Specifically, he
included material from Moscow-Gnzburg 775 f.37b in yod, item 142, an entry
describing the Divine Name associated with each of the seven Seals. Since the
damage to f.37b predated his access to it, Rabbi Alnaqar was forced to
acknowledge as missing the words lost to the knife, admissions that are preserved
in the printed edition of Shorshei published in 1999 CE in Jerusalem.7
, " ,)" " " " " "
,( ),
[ " ...] .( ),( ),( )
.(
Translation:8 (Aab"a9 [+honorifics]: Yitath an acronym for G-d, good, living; Tath an
acronym for good, death;10 Setit an acronym for a good secret, good hand; Setityah
an acronym for the secret is pure and will rise,11 its goodness will ascend ([last letter]
missing); Agrepti an acronym for air, greatness, one-fourth, sides, good ([last letter]
missing); Marom (missing); Shamriel an acronym for The Almighty watches and sees,
12
and all will behold Him ([last letter] missing). [] and what was written as missing
[for] every sign is not so in Shamriel, as you will see if you check).

The word listed in Shorshei as missing from the expansion of Shamriel, the seventh
Seal Name, has not been lost by trimming, but rather is illegible in MoscowGnzburg 775 f.37b (blue asterisk in Fig. 1). Alnaqars remark at the end of the
excerpt seems to dispute that a final word is missing, perhaps because the last two
letters of the acronym ( )occur at the start of the last legible word (), where
they are united as a ligature. If so, he cannot have inspected f.37b in person, as the
presence of a final (but illegible) word commencing with the letter is unmissable.
Several other words in the expansion of Shamriel are also difficult to read in f.37b,
and in places Rabbi Alnaqar (or the copyist of f.37b on whom he relied) either has
taken liberties in order to offer meaningful words or had access to clarifying
information from elsewhere (compare the blue underlined words in Fig. 1 with the
words in Alnaqars text).
Since the over-trimming of f.37b occurred in or before the 18th century CE,
the event substantially predates the manuscripts inclusion in the Gnzburg library,
which was founded in the following century by Joseph Yozel Gnzburg (St.
Petersburg and Paris, 181278 CE).13 Towards the end of the 20th century CE,
Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan included in the footnotes of some of his English-language
books a list of primary sources for the Seals,14 including the relevant pages of
Moscow-Gnzburg 775, but none contain the information missing from f.37b of
that manuscript. Kaplans list includes several pages in an early copy of Rabbi
Joseph Tirshoms Shoshan Yesod ha-Olam (Bibliothque de Genve, Comites
Latentes 145),15 a work composed in Ottoman Turkey or Greece in the 15th-16th
century CE.16 The recent digitization of this manuscript and its full publication
online by the Bibliothque de Genve17 have made it possible to re-examine the
work in its entirety. It turns out that page 141 in this manuscript, although not listed
Giluy Milta B'alma (Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts weblog), gmb042 (7 April, 2013)

Fig. 2. Shoshan Yesod haOlam (Bibliothque de Genve,

Comites Latentes 145), p.141.
From http://www.ecodices.unifr.ch/en/bge/cl0145
/141/large, reproduced here
under the Creative Commons
licence CC BY-NC 3.0.

by Kaplan, also describes the Seals; indeed, it presents essentially the same
information as Moscow-Gnzburg 775 f.37b and does so without any omissions
(Fig. 2). This page either preserves information transcribed from f.37b before the
trimming accident or relies on a source independent of Moscow-Gnzburg 775.
Since the last word of the expansion for Shamriel (which may always have been
illegible in Moscow-Gnzburg) is clear in Shoshan, the latter is somewhat more
likely.18
In Fig. 3, the lost words have been restored to Moscow-Gnzburg 775 f.37b,
and the perceived meanings of the affected sentences both before and after the
restoration of the wayward words are shown in Table 1. The expansion of the
sixth Seal Name, flagged as missing by Rabbi Alnaqar, is also absent from the
Shoshan page and has not been lost from it by misadventure. Accordingly, it seems
that this Name is not regarded as an acronym but simply as the Hebrew word
Marom, which alludes to extreme height as a Divine attribute (Micah 6:6, Jeremiah
17:12). Elsewhere in the Shoshan page, there are subtle shifts in meaning which
seem to reflect word substitutions arising from misreadings of letters in f.37b.
Giluy Milta B'alma (Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts weblog), gmb042 (7 April, 2013)

Fig. 3. Lost and illegible

letters/words restored to the lower
part of Moscow-Gnzburg 775
f.37b. Those based on the
corresponding text in Shoshan
Yesod ha-Olam (Bibliothque de
Genve, Comites Latentes 145,
p.141) are shown in red.
Interpolated words not from
Shoshan are in green. Meaningful
replacements in Shorshei haShemot for problem words (as
discussed in this report) are shown
in blue. Manuscript image shown
with permission of the Russian
State Library, Moscow.

Table 1. Perceived meanings of the affected sentences.

Seal
4

Name

Guess before restoration

After restoration

Setityah

[G-d made a ladder with] two

steps from cold and heat to satiate
the world.
The secret of good is pure and will
rise; its goodness will ascend [last
word missing].

[G-d made a ladder with] two steps to/

levels for the sun, and from cold and
heat to satiate the world.
The secret of good is pure and will
rise; its goodness will elevate its being.

[missing] created His world with

four elements, fire, wind, water,
and earth; coldness and winter.

The Holy and Blessed One created His

world with four elements, fire, wind,
water, and earth; cold and heat, winter
and summer.

Air, greatness, one-fourth, sides,

good, [last word missing].

Air, greatness, one-fourth, sides, good,

G-d.

Expansion of
acronym

Agrepti

Expansion of
acronym

Marom

A ring, master of every circle O

A ring, master of every circle [in] the

world, and this is its shape: O

Shamriel

The inclination of the seventh sign

is like this

The seventh sign is a crooked mem,

like this

Understanding and searching all

the world and all the thoughts,
which are a great perfection.

Understanding and searching all the

world and all the thoughts, with
weeping are exposed the deep and
secret things.

The Almighty [word illegible]

watches [and sees, and all will
behold]a Him [last word illegible].

The Almighty watches and sees, and to

Him hearts are revealed.

Expansion of
acronym
a

Using the words from Shorshei ha-Shemot (above and Fig. 3), since those in MoscowGnzburg 775 f.37b (blue underline, Fig. 1) resist identification.
Giluy Milta B'alma (Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts weblog), gmb042 (7 April, 2013)

So what have we learned from this manuscript detective story? The over-trimming
of Moscow-Gnzburg 775 f.37b occurred before the manuscripts acquisition for the
Gnzburg library. Rabbi Alnaqar, when editing Shorshei ha-Shemot, had access to the
contents of the compromised f.37b, most likely in the form of a transcript made earlier by
someone else. He did not know of the material in the later manuscript Comites Latentes
145 p.141, which preserves the lost text, and which probably derives from a source other
than the pre-accident f.37b. Use of the Shoshan text to repair the omissions in f.37b
means that, while the earliest explanations of the Seal Names and the expansions of their
acronyms remain mysterious and cryptic, they are at least and at last complete.19
1

IMHM record 000069801 (Moscow-Gnzburg 775, f.39b-276a).

Eitan P. Fishbane, 2009, As Light Before Dawn: The Inner World of a Medieval Kabbalist, Stanford
University Press, Stanford, CA.
3
IMHM record 000069800 (Moscow-Gnzburg 775, f.5a-39a).
4
Aryeh Kaplan, 1985, Meditation and Kabbalah, Red Wheel/Weiser, San Francisco, p.138 & 266; also
Aryeh Kaplan, 1997, Sefer Yetzirah: The Book of Creation, Red Wheel/Weiser, San Francisco, p.169
& 172. Note that Kaplans folio numbering differs slightly from that used by the IMHM and in this
report.
5
Hans A. Winkler, 1930, Siegel und Charaktere in der Mohammedanischen Zauberei, Walter de Gruyter &
Co., Berlin; Tewfik Canaan, 2004, The Decipherment of Arabic Talismans, In: Magic and
Divination in Early Islam, ed. Emilie Savage-Smith, Ashgate Variorum, Aldershot, p.125-177, at 169172; Edmond Doutt, 1908, Magie et Religion dans lAfrique du Nord, Adolphe Jourdan, Algiers,
p.155-156; Lloyd D. Graham, 2012, The Seven Seals of Judeo-Islamic Magic: Possible Origins of the
Symbols, online at https://www.academia.edu/1509428/The_Seven_Seals_of_JudeoIslamic_Magic_Possible_Origins_of_the_Symbols.
6
J.H. Chajes, 2011, Rabbis and their (In)Famous Magic: Classical Foundations, Medieval and Early
Modern Reverberations, In: Jewish Studies at the Crossroads of Anthropology and History: Authority,
Diaspora, Tradition, eds. Raanan S. Boustan, Oren Kosansky, Marina Rustow, Univ. Pennsylvania
Press, Philadelphia, p.58-79, fn 73 (p.356); and J.H. Chajes, 2012, Too Holy to Print: Taboo
Anxiety and the Publishing of Practical Hebrew Esoterica, Jewish History 26, 247-262, fn 3 (p.258).
7
Moses ben Mordecai Zacuto (the RaMaZ), 1999, Shorshei ha-Shemot, Hotzaat Nezer Shraga, Jerusalem.
8
English translations in this report are by www.EverBurningLight.org, Translation Services USA, Babylon
Human Translation and the author.
9
Presumably ( "I, Ab"a, ); at the start of his glosses, Abraham Alnaqar habitually identifies
himself as Ab"a bar Yoel, as explained in IMHM records 000062654 and 000077375. Alternatively,
the acronym may be a contraction of ( "as for example in IMHM record 000060869).
10
Moscow-Gnzburg 775, f.37b gives a three-word expansion (translating as good, death, was) of the twoletter Seal Name , as if the Name had been ;Alnaqar drops the superfluous final word.
11
Moscow-Gnzburg 775, f.37b again gives an additional word in the expansion, as if the Seal Name had
been ;Alnaqar again does not include the extra word (), reducing the first part of the Name
to The secret is pure and will arise.
12
Moscow-Gnzburg 775, f.37b again gives an additional word in the expansion, so that two words
correspond to , the second letter of the Name. The additional word is unclear.
13
A.I. Katsh, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0013_0_13210.html.
14
See note 4. Shorshei ha-Shemot was not included in the list, presumably because entries relating to the
Seals focus on the Names rather than the symbols.
15
IMHM record 000133810.
16
Meir Benayahu, 1972, Sefer Shoshan Yesod ha-Olam le-Rabbi Yosef Tirshom, Temirin, vol. 1, 1st ed.,
Mossad HaRav Kook, Jerusalem, p.187-269; Jeffrey H. Chajes, 2003, Between Worlds: Dybbuks,
Exorcists, and Early Modern Judaism, Univ. Pennsylvania Press, PA, p.65; Kaplan, Meditation and
Kabbalah, p.157.
2

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17

Online at http://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/list/one/bge/cl0145.
Further to notes 10-12, it is worth remarking that supernumerary words in the expansions of the Seal
Names in Moscow-Gnzburg 775, f.37b are absent from Shoshan Yesod ha-Olam, just as they were
omitted by Rabbi Alnaqar. The insertions in the fourth and seventh Names in f.37b (notes 11-12)
may simply represent false starts on words that were rendered correctly on the second attempt.
19
A paper containing a full analysis of the Seals symbolism and uses is forthcoming.
18

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