'ספר הנעלם', קטעים חדשים מספר 'אור זרוע' ובירורים בחיבוריו המוקדמים של ר' משה די ליאון: עיון ומהדורות מדעיות

R. Moses de León's early kabbalistic writing is known mainly from the anonymous Sefer Or Zaruʿ a, customarily attributed to him by scholars and incompletely reconstructed by Alexander Altman in 1980. Sefer Or Zaruʿ a probably predates de León's theosophical Hebrew writings, most of which were written between 1286 and 1293 under his name. This stage in his thought is usually referred to as ‘pre-theosophical', and several other anonymous fragments, similar in theme and style to Or Zaruʿ a, have been associated with it. The main text from this stage, preserved in more manuscripts than all the others combined, is generally known as Sod Darkhe ha-Otiyyot, which bears a strong pseudepigraphical character and, mysteriously, refers to the so far unidentified Sefer ha-Neʿ elam. The present article offers a new description of this corpus as well as, for the first time, a complete version of Sefer Or Zaruʿ a. Second, a long fragment from the lost Sefer haNeʿ elam is identified and edited through an analysis of its affinities with the other texts associated with Or Zaruʿ a. Finally, considerable evidence establishes de León's authorship of this book. The article sheds light on de León's early kabbalistic stage and presents evidence regarding his pseudepigraphic activity. These findings invite a reassessment of de León's complex shifts from one speculative system to another, showing gradual and not necessarily linear development in his diverse kabbalistic work.