Perlhefter's Poppers Ilan

This large and elegant ilan was created by the Prague-born scribe and scholar R. Behr Eibeschütz Perlhefter (ca. 1650–ca. 1713). Perlhefter’s wife, Bella bat R. Jakob, was herself a noted Torah scholar — a remarkable detail that situates this work within a learned household. Perlhefter’s scroll/rotulus is a copy of the ilan first designed and executed by R. Meir Poppers (ca. 1624–1662). Poppers, who edited Etz Hayyim, the canonical edition of Lurianic teachings, was a wandering Bohemian kabbalist who created The Ilan of Adam Kadmon and the Enrobings for his students in mid-seventeenth-century Krakow. In his words, “In the ilan which I fashioned for my colleagues outside of the Land, I presented all the details which were possible for me to draw.” R. Behr was not a Lurianic kabbalist himself, and may have copied the ilan as part of his own attempt to master Lurianic lore, in keeping with Poppers’ original pedagogical motivation. 

The ilan indeed reveals Perlhefter’s unexpected artistic gifts. Crosshatching brings shading and relief to its dense compositions, while elongated, rounded lines and precise calligraphy tame the complexity of the Lurianic “enrobings.” Empty space is rare; floral and geometric motifs fill the margins in a vivid display of horror vacui. The result is a work of striking beauty and clarity, balancing order and ornament.

Perlhefter's masterpiece remains a remarkable artifact: an elegant visualization of esoteric learning, created at a moment of spiritual and intellectual ambition by a scholar possessed of rare artistic gifts.

This edition is limited to 100 individually hand-numbered prints worldwide.