נפתלי הירץ בן יעקב אלחנן

Rav Naftali Hertz ben Yaakov Elchanan Bacharach, a German rav of the seventeenth century born in Frankfurt, was the author of Emek HaMelech, printed in Amsterdam in 5408/1648, on the kabbalah of the Arizal. The work rests largely on Limudei Atzilut of Rav Yisrael Sarug, whose material it takes up at length.

Emek HaMelech left a deep mark on the kabbalah that followed it. Many treated it as an authoritative presentation of the Arizal’s teaching — among them the chassidim of Chabad and the talmidim of the Vilna Gaon — and its imprint can be seen in the system of the Ramchal. It is the sefer that brings the account of the treasures of the Beit HaMikdash, which the navi Yirmiyahu hid away with the help of five others before the conquest of Yerushalayim and the exile to Bavel. Its second part, Gan HaMelech, a commentary on passages of the Zohar, remains in manuscript, and the first two she’arim of Emek HaMelech have been rendered into English.

From its hakdamah comes the story told of the Avraham Avinu shul in Chevron: on the night of Yom Kippur a stranger appeared to complete the minyan as the tenth man, and when the tefillot were over the congregation could not find him. That night the chazzan dreamed that the man spoke to him and said he was Avraham Avinu, buried close by in Me’arat HaMachpelah. The text of the story and the original cover of the sefer hang today on a plaque in that shul.