Etz Chaim, Kabbalistic Divinity Maps and Golems: The Tree of Life in Safed, Prague, and Montreal

In 2013, the Jewish Public Library Archives received an unusual donation: an ilan, a kabbalistic Tree of life (Etz Chaim), that is an arboreal diagram the early kabbalists used in both meditative and mystical practices. It was owned by Rabbi Yehudah Yudel Rosenberg, and donated by Dr. Lawrence Rosenberg and his brother Barry, great-nephews of the famous Montreal rabbi, Yehudah Yudel Rosenberg who lived in the city between 1919-1935. Rosenberg was a Hasid, a kabbalist, a holistic doctor, scribe, the first translator of the Zohar from Aramaic into Hebrew, and the maternal grandfather of Mordecai Richler. The Montreal Jewish Public Library Ilan is the only artefact of that kind in Canada. Exceptionally authorized to leave the JPL Archives, the Ilan, or Rosenberg Rotulus (a rotulus is a scroll that unrolls vertically) will be shown to the public. The narrative backdrops to the parchment, the golem stories and Rosenberg’s medical manuscripts will be recounted in a session offered by Eddie Paul, Associate Director of Special Collections at the Jewish Public Library. Q&A will follow.

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