New Book! Commentary on Rabbi Kaduri's "Sefer Kedushat Yitzchak"

 You may have noticed it's been a few months from my last post on the blog. I've been working on a new book which I am pleased to announce has just been published!

To understand this new book, let's first discuss perhaps one of the  greatest master Kabbalists who died in our lifetimes: Rabbi Yitzchak Kaduri. Rabbi Kaduri, born around 1898 in Baghdad, Iraq and died in Israel in 2006 was a Rabbi and Kabbalist par excellence of our generation. Rabbi Kaduri would often give blessings and write amulets based on the traditions he learned from his teacher, Rabbi Yehuda Fatiyah (Baghdad,  1859–1942,Israel) who was likewise a master of Kabbalah and the traditions of how to make amulets. He also had preformed many exorcisms which he recorded the fascinating details of the events in his book Sefer Beit Lechem Yehudah. In turn, Rabbi Fatiyah was a student of the master kabbalist Rabbi Yosef Hayyim (Baghdad, 1835-1909). The list can keep going.... In short, Rabbi Kaduri comes from a long line of guardians of the secrets of Kabbalah. 

Rabbi Kaduri did not publish his writings during his lifetime. One of his main students, Rabbi 'adas printed a facsimile copy of Kaduri's practical kabbalah manuscripts entitled "Sefer Kedushat Yitzhak". This is a mammoth (six volumes!!) collection of amulets, incantations, meditations and all sorts of esoteric knowledge. The printing was slightly censored, leaving some of the sections out. I have been recently very privileged and honored to have had access to the original uncensored copies. 

As I read and learned  through the material I began to take notes for myself. I had no intent on publishing this as I wrote, but by the time I was finished, I felt once I had done all this research and work to write a commentary on the Sefer Kedushat Yitzhak it would be a shame not to share it with others. (In fact, it's considered the right thing to do to share one's Torah thoughts with others). Thus, with the blessings of the Rabbi who had given me access to the manuscripts, I went ahead in publishing my commentary.

 Unlike my previous two books which I published as either the original Hebrew with English translation or just the English translation, this new work of mine is published just in the original Hebrew. Rabbi Kaduri was personally against translating Kabbalistic treatises (a lot of Kabbalah uses specific terminology that can be either hard to translate what the message is trying to be conveyed or possibly misunderstood. I'm not saying it's impossible to translate Kabbalistic books from Hebrew, but  at times it's certainly more complicated that regular literature). As my commentary is directly on his book, I will be respecting his wishes and leave it in the original Hebrew. A lot of my commentary also cross-references to other kabbalistic treatises which aren't in translation either so it wouldn't be very useful if one can't read Hebrew anyway. That said, if you can read Hebrew, then you'll definitely want to pick up a copy for yourself!  Also, I've included at the end my treatise (in Hebrew) on kabbalistic rings, Behold With This Ring with the source material as a bonus.

Link to purchase the book on Amazon: HERE  

Here's some pictures from the book....

Title Page

Excerpts from the Kabbalistic manuscripts Sefer Kedushat Yitzhak of Rabbi Yizthak Kaduri with commentary by Rabbi Yosef M. Cohen.

pages 8-9. A variety of different recipes. bottom of p. 8-top of p. 9 how to invoke the prince of wine to make wine flow out of a wall by sticking a sword in the wall then pulling it out

For a dream query from the dead using an adjuration to, among others, Dumah the overseer of the dead (he's names in the image on the left) 

A discussion contrasting the preparation and Divine Names of the pentacle of Mars to ward of demons found in Rabbi Kaduri's mss. to that of the version found in the Key of Solomon

Hope you find this new book to be helpful in your studies in Kabbalah and spiritual journey......

.....but thy eyes shall see thy teacher (Isaiah 30:20)