A Manuscript by A Student Of The Ramchal’s

A remarkable discovery has recently emerged from among a group of rare books and manuscripts consigned to my shop: an unrecorded eighteenth-century Hebrew autograph manuscript penned by Rabbi Yekutiel Gordon, one of the most fascinating and consequential members of the inner circle of Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, the Ramchal.

Hidden from public view for centuries, this extraordinary manuscript came to light only through careful examination of a collection entrusted to the shop for sale.

The manuscript itself is modest in size – approximately 4.5 by 6.5 inches – but immense in significance. Consisting of one hundred surviving double-sided folios, it preserves what appears to be a previously unknown work entitled Mareh Kohen, together with a section of Mareh Mussar, a work already known to scholars and associated with Rabbi Yekutiel Gordon.

Mareh Kohen focuses largely on the themes of Elul, teshuvah, the Yamim Noraim, and the profound symbolism of the shofar. Despite extensive bibliographic investigation, no known reference to a work bearing this title has yet been located. The manuscript therefore appears to preserve an entirely unknown composition, lost to scholarship until now.

Perhaps most compelling is the internal evidence linking the work directly to Rabbi Gordon. The manuscript contains a distinct section of Mareh Mussar written in a different hand. Within Mareh Kohen, the author explicitly refers to “my book, Mareh Mussar.” The cited passage corresponds directly to material preserved in the Mareh Mussar section of the same codex. Since Mareh Mussar is independently attributed to Rabbi Yekutiel Gordon, this statement provides powerful evidence that Mareh Kohen is likewise his own work.

Additional features strongly suggest that we are dealing not with a compilation, but with an original authored composition. Throughout the manuscript, the writer employs phrases such as “Amar Hamechaber” and includes revisions, deletions, corrections, and cross-references to later sections, all hallmarks of a carefully constructed literary work in progress.

Most significantly, the handwriting has been compared with an authenticated autograph manuscript of Rabbi Yekutiel Gordon preserved in the collection of the National Library of Israel. The match is conclusive.

The manuscript also reflects one of Gordon's most unusual personal characteristics. Having spent formative years in both Eastern Europe and Italy, he developed two entirely distinct Hebrew scripts, one Italian and one Ashkenazic. Remarkably, he sometimes shifts between these hands on the very same page, a rare paleographic feature that serves as a vivid reminder of the unique world he inhabited.

Rabbi Yekutiel Gordon occupies a singular place in Jewish history. A native of Vilna, physician, kabbalist, and author, he traveled to Padua to study medicine at the university there. During his years in Italy, he entered into the Ramchal's inner circle, combining rigorous academic study with intensive immersion in Kabbalah.

In 1729, Gordon dispatched an enthusiastic letter to Vilna describing the extraordinary spiritual experiences of his revered teacher, including reports of heavenly revelations and guidance from a maggid. The letter fell into hostile hands and helped ignite what would become the great controversy surrounding the Ramchal. At a time when the Jewish world remained deeply scarred by the trauma of Sabbateanism, such reports generated alarm across Europe and contributed to the fierce opposition directed at the young mystic.

When Gordon's letters first stirred the Jewish world, the Vilna Gaon was still a child. As he matured into the preeminent leader of Lithuanian Jewry, however, he emerged as one of the greatest admirers of the Ramchal's writings. The Gaon regarded the Ramchal's system of Kabbalah as exceptionally pure, and famously declared that he would have journeyed to Italy on foot for the privilege of meeting him.

In this sense, Rabbi Yekutiel Gordon stands at a critical crossroads in modern Jewish intellectual history. Through his efforts to preserve, copy, and transmit the Ramchal's teachings, ideas that had once been viewed with suspicion ultimately found fertile ground in Lithuania. Those teachings would go on to shape the spiritual outlook of the Vilna Gaon and, through him, influence generations of students and the broader Lithuanian yeshiva world.

The discovery of this autograph manuscript, therefore, represents far more than the recovery of a forgotten text. It offers a rare new window into one of the central figures who served as a bridge between Italian Jewish mysticism and Eastern European Torah scholarship, and it restores to view a voice that has remained silent for nearly three centuries.