Chotsh, Ẓevi Hirsh ben Jerahmeel
CHOTSH, ẒEVI HIRSH BEN JERAHMEEL
CHOTSH, ẒEVI HIRSH BEN JERAHMEEL (c. 1700), kabbalist and itinerant preacher who lived in Cracow, in Prossnitz, and in Western Europe. He published: Shabtade-Rigla, a collection of kabbalistic sermons (Fuerth, 1693); Derekh Yesharah, kabbalistic prayers and magic (ibid., 1697); and Ḥemdat Ẓevi, detailed commentary on Tikkunei Zohar in the spirit of Isaac *Luria's Kabbalah (Amsterdam, 1706). A part of the first work was translated into German in 1698, probably with the assistance of the author, as Verzeichnis der General- und Haupt-Lehrsaetze der alten Cabbalisten. The autograph manuscript of his kabbalistic work Tiferet Ẓevi is extant in a Bodleian manuscript at Oxford. The contention by Eliakim b. Judah ha-Milzahagi *Mehlsack and D. *Kahana that Chotsh belonged to the ascetic wing of the Shabbateans is debatable. Chotsh also revised a Yiddish translation made by his grandfather Aviezer Zelig of easier parts of the *Zohar under the title Naḥalat Ẓevi (Frankfurt, 1711). In spite of its rather clumsy style, the book became very popular and was often reprinted.
bibliography:
E. Milzahagi (A.G. Samiler, known as Mehlsack), Sefer Ravyah (Ofen, 1837), 27b; D. Kahana, Toledot ha-Mekubbalim…, 2 (1914), 123–6; E. Schulmann, Sefat Yehudit Ashkenazit ve-Sifrutah (1903), 38; M. Erik, Geshikhte fun di Yidishe Literatur (1928), 240ff; G. Scholem, Bibliographia Kabbalistica (Ger., 1933), 209–10.
[Gershom Scholem]