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Documenti di Professioni
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Yair Paz
Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies, Israel
Introduction
1
I wish to thank my colleagues at Schechter institute, Dr. Doron Bar and Prof.
Renée Levine Melammed who read the article and commented on it.
238
2
The expression ‘four holy cities’ is particularly noticeable in Izhak Ben-Zvi’s
studies, but is common in the terminology of the history of Ottoman Eretz Israel
and differs from the more routine expression ‘holy community’ which was attached
to every Jewish community, such as Jaffa, Gaza or Shechem. The question of the
unique growth of Safed is sharpened in the light of the rapid decline of this glo-
rious period in the history of the city, in the last quarter of the century.
239
capital and the donations that they invested in the industrial infra-
structure enabled them to develop a competitive economic branch,
despite difficult opening conditions. Avizur himself points out ‘the
longing of exiles and former conversos who had returned to the open
practice of Judaism to settle in Eretz Israel, and the many needy
people who started to look for a way to get into this profession (per-
haps hoping for better conditions than they had found in Salonika)
led to the development of the textile industry in Safed’ (Avizur 1963,
45). Avizur himself points out ‘the longing of exiles and former con-
versos who had returned to the open practice of Judaism to settle
in Eretz Israel, and the many needy people who started to look for
a way to get into this profession (perhaps hoping for better condi-
tions than they had found in Salonika) led to the development of
the textile industry in Safed’ (Avizur 1963, 45).
Nevertheless it turns out that the economic prosperity was short lived;
tough international competition as well as crises that hit the Jews of
Safed at the end of the century brought about the rapid decline of
the town’s economic base. The crisis in Safed preceded the world
crisis (in the wool trade) by about half a century, and in fact its
causes were local. We can conclude that the ‘wonder’ cited by Avizur
was not derived from geographical factors but from initiatives and
the human ability of Spanish exiles to make links between markets
for natural resources at the ends of the earth, develop sophisticated
industry on the basis of a shaky foundation and finally to find mar-
kets for this expensive product far away from Safed, presumably with
the help of ramified connections with their communities of origin.
After all this is said, the question still remains what attracted so
many Jews, among them a disproportionate number of Kabbalists,
during a short and defined period of time, to migrate to this remote
mountain town in Eretz Israel?
There is an hypothesis that the preponderance of tombs of the
sages of the Mishnah, and in particular that of Rabbi Simeon bar
Yohai (Rashbi), to whom the Book of the Zohar was attributed, were
the source of attraction. However this assumption cannot stand on
its own. The fact is that we have no information about an attempt
to settle in Meron itself (where the tomb of Rashbi itself is located),
or even of an aspiration that was nipped in the bud because of con-
temporary conditions, while at the same time there were Jews dwelling
241
Kabbalists and their students specifically for the area of Safed and
the Upper Galilee is to be found in their unique spiritual under-
standing of this region and the connection they made between sym-
bolic ideas and the concrete vistas of the Galilee. Scholars studying
this period have already pointed out that at the same time we are
witness to a multiplicity of phenomena, events and processes related
(or interpreted as being related) to an increase in Messianic tension
and expectation of the Redemption. This subject has been investi-
gated from a number of points of view, primarily by means of ques-
tions about the time factors leading to Messianic expectations (Scholem
1967, 244–286). However a notable fact is that a significant part of
these events and phenomena are related to the important Jewish
center developing in Safed and in the Galilee at that time, and we
will present here five examples:
1. The prophecy of the child: Around the time of the conquest of Eretz
Israel by the Ottoman Sultan Salim I (1516) a rumor spread that
a Galilean child prophesied about the conquest of the land, the
end of time and the appearance of the Messiah, but his prophecy
was difficult to interpret (Eisenstein 1915, 396–398). The Kabbalist
Rabbi Abraham Halevy tried to interpret the prophecy of the
child, Nahman b. R. Pinhas of Kfar Baram, near Safed, on the
basis of historical events in the period. In his opinion the Messiah
would appear in 1530 or 1531 ‘in the gate that turns towards
Rome, and it is a city in the land of the Galilee, called Rome,
near Sephoris.’ He emphasized that the Messiah would appear
in the Upper Galilee (Scholem, Qiryat Sefer; Vilnai, Ariel, s.v. Rome).
2. David Hareuveni and Solomon Molcho: These two fore-runners and
preachers visited Safed and Jerusalem in the course of 1523–1525
predicting that in the year 1540 the Redemption would take place.
Their visit aroused many echoes and expectations. The burning
of Solomon Molcho on the stake only increased these expecta-
tions and some people connected this event to appearance of the
Messiah son of Joseph (Aeshcoly-Idel 1993; Idel discusses, in his
introduction to the second, expanded edition of Aeshcoli’s book,
Reuveni’s messianic pretensions and the expectation of the Messiah
son of Joseph between 1535 and 1540). For example R. Joseph
Karo arrived at Safed in the wake of a prophecy by his ‘Maggid ’
[the voice of the Mishnah that spoke to him] that he would have
243
Amidah, Ch. 19:43a; Tamar 1964, 170). Tamar stresses that Ari
and his disciples not only expected the coming of the Messiah
son of Joseph, but also took active measures to bring it about. Below
we will discuss further the connection between the Messiah son
of Joseph and the Galilee.
What all of these sources have in common is connecting the con-
cept of ‘the beginnings of Redemption’ with a specific territory and
a given time period. However, it seems that the most notable and
active use of this combination was that made by the charismatic
rabbi of Safed, R. Jacob Berav. In those years a harsh controversy
took place between the rabbis of Safed and Jerusalem over restora-
tion of ordination in general and the role of Safed in particular in
that restoration (Katz 1986, 213–236). The study of that controversy
has revolved primarily around the competition between these two
leading communities of Eretz Israel in the sixteenth century, Safed
and Jerusalem. However, it seems that the background behind and
motive for R. Jacob Berav’s efforts to renew ordination in Safed
specifically were related to the opinion that Safed and the Galilee
had a central role in this stage of ‘the footsteps of the Messiah’ or
‘the beginning of Redemption’, and in this context it was even sug-
gested that R. Jacob Berav intended to declare himself ‘Nasi’. His
proposal to renew ordination was based on a homily in the Babylonian
Talmud (Sabbath 139a; Sanhedrin 98a): ‘And I will restore your
judges as of old’ and then ‘Zion will be redeemed in justice’, i.e.
renewal of ordination and the resumption of the Sanhedrin as con-
ditions for Redemption (as suggested in the first source that we
quoted). Nevertheless, the question still remains: why Safed?
More explicit remarks on the immanent link between renewal of
ordination in general and the importance of doing so in the Galilee
itself were made by one of R. Jacob Berav’s disciples, R. Moses de
Castro. In a letter from Jerusalem he hints at the view of his teacher
regarding the Redemption: ‘He will fulfill in our day the words of
the prophet, saying shake off the dust, arise and sit up, beloved land,
heritage of the deer, for our brethren who dwell in the Galilee have
sent to us saying we have the law of the redemption, the three lands
of the Galilee, and Tiberias among them, and there the Sanhedrin ceased
to exist and it will first return to there in the future’ (Dimitrovsky
1966, 112–132). In other words, the residents of Safed declared a
tradition according to which the Sanhedrin would return ‘there’ first:
245
will gather in the Holy Land and armies will go up all of them to
the land of the Galilee because there the Messiah will reveal him-
self because it is the portion of Joseph’ (Zohar II, 20a). Even though
it is difficult to identify geographical references in the Zohar (cf.
Liebes 2002, 31–44), the Zohar clearly stresses the importance of
the Galilee in the framework of a stage in the appearance of the
Messiah son of Joseph, bringing us back again to the words of
R. Moses de Castro quoted above. R. David b. Zimra (Radbaz),
one of the most influential rabbis of Eretz Israel in the 16th cen-
tury (Safed, Jerusalem and Cairo), writes in his commentary on the
aforementioned quote from Maimonides that the Messiah ‘will appear
in the Galilee and then disappear once again’, which is closed to
Vital’s remarks mentioned above. And as we have seen that is how
R. Haim Vital perceived the death of R. Isaac Luria in the Galilee
a short time after he arrived there.
Other early sources also make a more specific geographical dis-
tinction, speaking of ‘the Upper Galilee’: ‘A star rises from Jacob . . . it
smashes the brow of Moab’ (Num. 24:17)—R. Huna said in the
name R. Levi: ‘it teaches that Israel will be gathered in the Upper
Galilee, and the Messiah son of Joseph will look out [ yizpeh—per-
haps a word-play on Zefat] upon them from the Galilee and they
will go up from there and all of Israel his people to Jerusalem’ (Pesiqta
Zutrata, Balaq, 58; cf. Jellinek 1938, 141 and Eisenstein 1915, 386).
With a few differences this midrash also appears in an additional
anonymous source: ‘At that time a man from the descendents of
Joseph will arise and be called the Messiah of the Lord and many
people will gather around him in the Upper Galilee and he will be
their king . . . and then the Messiah son of Joseph will go up together
with the people gathered following him from the Galilee to Jerusalem’
(Talmi 1955, 179; Idel 1998, 382 n. 8).
In conclusion a number of Talmudic, midrashic and medieval
sources (e.g. the Zohar) discussing the beginnings of Redemption
indicate that its first stages will take place in the Galilee, and more
specifically cite two locations; the first—Tiberias and the second the
Upper Galilee. Similarly these sources stress (as they were interpreted)
the necessity of resuming the Sanhedrin specifically in the Galilee
and even the office of Nasi there as well, and also that the Galilean
redemption will have a preparatory stage under the leadership of
the Messiah son of Joseph.
247
4. The customs of Ari and his disciples (‘the lion’s whelps’): Despite
the short time that Ari lived in Safed he left his impact with a
number of special practices and one of the most famous of them
(attributed to him, even though it actually preceded him) was
going out into a field in order to receive the ‘Queen’, i.e. the
Sabbath. The Sabbath symbolized the connection between the
real world and the Upper Sephirot and functioned as a focus and
a propitious time for the beginning of Redemption (Halamish
2000, 332–355). This was realized and demonstrated by going
out to the Galilean countryside and by performing a ceremony
in which attention was given to every detail (see below).
5. Evidently the Kabbalists were proud of their location in the Upper
Galilee and of its eschatological context and emphasized it. For
example the famous Kabbalist R. Shelomo Alkabez concluded
one of his books saying: ‘. . . and this book was completed here
in Safed, which is in the Upper Galilee, may it be rebuilt speed-
ily in our days, on the third day of the month of Kislev, in the
year [5]313 [= 1553] and may he reveal himself to us Amen and
Amen’, and he does not make do with the ordinary idiom ‘the
Holy Land’ or ‘the Holy Community’ (Pachter 1987, n. 36).
Likewise R. Elijah de Vidash takes pride ‘and we have already
seen here in the Safed in the Upper Galilee sages . . . who were famil-
iar with the science of physiognomy’ (Vidash, [1575] 1926, 2,6,70c;
Halamish 2000, 339). Similarly a few generations late the printer
of Hemdat Yamim took pride in how the book was published: ‘when
I went up the mountain, the holy mountain of the Upper
Galilee . . . and behold a man stood opposite me carrying this
book from the house of Rav’ (preface by the printer R. Jacob
Algazi, Izmir 1731).
Thus it is possible that the expression ‘and the city shall be rebuilt
on its mound’ in the sixth stanza does not refer to Jerusalem at all
(may be alike Jer. 30:18), but hints at the restoration of Safed, the
purpose of which was to provide refuge or in Alkabez’s language:
‘The afflicted of my people will be sheltered within you.’
Evidently for Alkabez and his group (and later on for Ari and
R. Haim Vital) the verbal connection between landscape and ritual
did not suffice. They created a highly evocative ceremonial act, linked
in a unique and intentional way to the landscape of the Upper
Galilee. By this we refer to the custom of going out of the town
every Sabbath eve, to nature, in order to receive (or to greet) the
‘Sabbath Queen’. Much has been written about the origins and
meaning of this custom and the symbolism of Queen/Bride/Divine
Presence/Redemption (Cohen, Halamish 2000; Kimelman 2003).
A number of elements in the ceremony, cited by those who have
described it, emphasize this trend:
1. Stressing the position in which one should stand when perform-
ing the ceremony: ‘When you go out to the field, choose a place
that is higher and there should be open space behind you and
on your right and left, at least four cubits should be clean before
you as your eyes can see’ (this and other instructions are from
the prayer book of the Ari—Cohen 337). In other words, seek
an open space and especially where you can look in front of you.
2. The unusual emphasis on standing in ‘a high place’ (in some ver-
sions ‘on a high mountain’) was meant to obtain a view of the
surrounding area (as opposed to the accepted custom of praying
from a low point, particularly in the practice of Oriental Jewish
communities). One may presume that the purpose of the vantage
point was actually to see 'Emeq habakha, i.e. the Valley of Tiberias
and the Sea of Galilee, and in the opposite direction the high
Mt. Meron. This may be done easily if you go out to one of the
hills outside Safed, and it certainly could be done from the hill
of the citadel, which was the place at which it had long been the
custom to carry out the Tashlikh ceremony on the New Year
(Rosh Hashanah) in Safed, with a view to the Sea of Galilee
below.
255
that the hymn Lecha Dodi was part of the ceremony of going out
to the field, we may conclude that without the immanent con-
nection between the hymn and the landscape, going out to the
field becomes meaningless.
Thus, finally it seems that the hymn Lecha Dodi and the practices
that developed in Safed for receiving the Sabbath express the sec-
ond stage in the sanctification of Safed. Unlike kabbalistic writings
composed outside Eretz Israel, here a clear connection with the land-
scape finds its expression, not only because these individuals were
living in this area with its dramatic landscape, but from an ideol-
ogy that here, in this picturesque landscape the beginnings of
Redemption will take place, and, moreover, the awaited Redemption
is already suggested by the concrete landscape. These were prima
facie optimal environmental conditions for significant kabbalistic lit-
erary creativity and they merged well with the concretization of the
landscape and turned it into a symbol, one of the principles of the
Kabbalah.
In the course of the spiritual metamorphosis conducted by the
Kabbalists an emphasis was put on the centrality of the Upper
Galilee, even at the expense of the centrality of Jerusalem, both as
a temporary stage (the beginnings of Redemption) and as an idea
(turning towards the west).
The ability to take the congregation to ‘a high place’ out of town,
from which they could see the valley of the Sea of Galilee in one
direction and Mt. Meron, with the tomb of the author of the Book
of the Zohar in another, was a rare geographical-historical coinci-
dence. Since then a rich tradition of Kabbalistic customs developed
(going out to the field of holy apples to receive the Divine Presence;
ceremonies at Meron on the anniversary of Rashbi’s death etc.) which
comprise an entire series of acts shrouded in mystery the purpose
of which was to bring about the coming of the Messiah and his
appearance in the Upper Galilee.
Conclusion
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A Holy People
Jewish and Christian Perspectives
on Religious Communal Identity
edited by
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