SEFER HA-ZOHAR (THE BOOK OF SPLENDOR), ATTRIBUTED TO RABBI SIMEON BAR YOHAI, JERUSALEM: ISRAEL BEN ABRAHAM [BAK], 1844-1846

The first Zohar printed in Jerusalem.

In his introduction to the present edition of Sefer ha-zohar (see lots 31, 32), Israel Bak writes that, “from the day I arrived in the Holy Land and set up my printing press, it has been my full intention to publish the […] Sefer ha-zohar, which shines like the splendor of the sky.” Having already issued the Tikkunei zohar in 1844, he went on to produce the present set of Zohar al ha-torah, based in large part on the Livorno, 1815-1816 edition (which itself built upon the Livorno, 1791-1793 and Constantinople, 1736 printings). Bak concludes by thanking Joseph Amzalag and Rabbi David Tevele Schiff of London (d. 1791) for their support of his efforts in producing this, the first edition of the Zohar to be published in the Holy Land. The Bak press would continue to play an integral role in the intellectual and communal life of the Yishuv until it was sold by Israel’s son Nisan (1815-1889) in 1883.