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Shney Luchot Habrit on the Written Torah
by Isaiah Horowitz, Eliyahu Munk (translator)
The “Shelah.”
Of Horowitz’s works the “Shene Luḥot ha-Berit” has become the most popular; it, as well as its author, came to be known as “Shelah ha Ḳadosh” (Holy Shelah). Glückel of Hameln records that, not long after its publication, her husband, Ḥayyim, read it on his death-bed (“Memoiren,” ed. Kaufmann, p. 199, Frankfort-on-the Main, 1896). Aaron Bernstein, in his novel “Vögele der Maggid,” depicts one of the characters, Ḥayyim Mikwenitzer, as finding everything in his “Holy Shelah.” Pious Jews drew consolation and instruction from this book (see Mielziner in “Ben Chananja,” iv. 96), which has frequently been printed in abridged form (see Benjacob, “Oẓar ha-Sefarim,” p. 535).

As the title indicates, it was intended as a compendium of the Jewish religion. Its divisions are, however, very unsystematic, and its confusion of titles and subtitles renders it difficult to analyze. The principal divisions fall under the heading “The Gate of the Letters,” and comprise: a compendium of religious ethics, alphabetically arranged; a division dealing with the laws of the holy days and beginning with a section entitled “Masseket Ḥullin,” treating largely of the laws of ẓiẓit, tefillin, mezuzah, etc., enjoining the rigorous observance of the Law, and emphasizing the moral lessons derived from its practice; another division treating of the weekly Pentateuchal portions from the halakhic viewpoint, and of their mystic meanings and moral lessons (the moral lessons, entitled “Tokaḥot Musar,” are printed in some editions of the Pentateuch, like those of Amsterdam, 1760 and 1764, and Vienna, 1794); an essay on the principles of rabbinical law entitled “Torah she-Be’al Peh,” of some scientific value. Horowitz finds mystical lessons in the number of the fingers and of their bones, which numbers indicate symbolically the Ten Sefirot and the name of God. He believes strictly every word found in rabbinical literature; thus he derives from the Talmudic legend of David’s death an argument against a decision found in the Shulḥan ‘Aruk (137a; comp. 408a). He is very strict in matters of ritual law. His book contains likewise many ethical teachings of an exalted character (see 242a, where he advises the advocates [see Shtadlan] always to remember that real power does not come from kings and princes, but from God alone).via Jewish Encyclopedia