What changes in the conceptualization of God, the ultimate healer, once God himself becomes the o... more What changes in the conceptualization of God, the ultimate healer, once God himself becomes the object of healing? This article examines the delicate tensions between divine and human agency in the Lurianic kabbalah, focusing on its grammar of action, and the complex relations between the subjects and the objects of this action. Rather than analyzing the relations between the kabbalists and their God through their conscious perceptions, the article explores how these relations emerge from the Lurianic discursive configurations and describes the role of medical discourse in their shaping. I claim that in order to perceive the transformation in the image of God in this early modern kabbalistic corpus, we should place at the heart of our inquiry the questions of who the patient is in the Lurianic medical clinic and how the relations between the human and the divine protagonists of the Lurianic drama are woven in this clinic.
This article explores the epistemic nature of medieval and early modern ‘medicine of the soul’, a... more This article explores the epistemic nature of medieval and early modern ‘medicine of the soul’, and its practitioners. It asks to what extent this medicine (known also as ‘spiritual medicine’) relies on speciffically medical knowledge, thus going beyond a metaphor. A history of Jewish ‘soul medicine’ is provided and its roots in Greco-Roman medicine are outlined, while special attention is paid to the debates over its epistemic nature in Islamicate contexts. Two moments within Jewish thought are highlighted: the medieval Andalusian writings, epitomized by Maimonides’ choice of medicine as a model for his ethics, and Lurianic Kabbalah in early modernity. The article shows that the latter represents an extreme case of the medicalization of the role of the soul physician, and suggests some contexts to its uniqueness in this history.
Medicalizing Magic and Ethics: Rereading Lurianic Practice, 2022
Recent years witnessed a growing scholarly awareness to the centrality of practice among early mo... more Recent years witnessed a growing scholarly awareness to the centrality of practice among early modern kabbalists, and particularly in Lurianic Kabbalah. While the importance of human action to this branch of Safedian Kabbalah has long been recognized, the significance of its “over-detailed,” “bewildering,” practical discourse to the formation of its meaning has received much less attention. This article re-examines how R. Hayim Vital, Luria's closest disciple, shaped the Lurianic notion of action, through an exploration of one of the most highly technical and formulaic practical loci in his writings: The tikuney avonot (sin amendments or penitentials). The article proposes a reading of these practical formulae as a medical, or rather medicalized, discourse, closely related to the contents of Vital's life-long medical activity—a factor that has been hitherto almost entirely neglected in the Lurianic scholarship. The article analyses these penitentials through the two traditions that have been presented as lying at their basis, The magical prescriptive tradition and the pietistic (especially Ashkenazi), so-called "ethical," penitential literature. It demonstrates in what ways they are altered by the discursive presence of medicine, and moreover, how medical discourse provides a key to the uniqueness of the Lurianic discourse of action, as it arises from the details of these tikuney avonot. Thus, the article shows that in order to comprehend the rise in the place of action in Lurianic Kabbalah, one must acknowledge the oft-concealed contribution of epistemic shifts – such as the assimilation of medical discourse – to changing kabbalistic perceptions and attitudes.
The City of the Kabbalists? Sixteenth-Century Safed as Center and as Periphery, 2022
Assaf Tamari, "The City of the Kabbalists? Sixteenth-Century Safed as Center and as Periphery", Z... more Assaf Tamari, "The City of the Kabbalists? Sixteenth-Century Safed as Center and as Periphery", Zion 87.4 (2022): 505-547 Sixteenth-century Safed has long been considered in both scholarship and popular memory ʻthe center of the new Kabbalistic movement,ʼ as Gershom Scholem famously phrased it. Even though more recent scholarship has attenuated this view in different ways, Safed is still seen first and foremost through the prism of Kabbalah scholarship and as ʻthe city of Kabbalists.ʼ In this article, I re-evaluate Safed’s status as center and as periphery. First, I examine the actual ʻcenter consciousnessʼ of the Safedian elite during the city’s period of efflorescence and contrast it to dominant historiographical as well as traditional depictions. In this manner, I show the Safedian self-fashioning as a center to be primarily an expression (and a project) of the Halakhic elite, and of R. Joseph Karo in particular, formulated in halakhic terms. At the same time, the kabbalistic elite, assumed to exhibit the confidence of a triumphant center, appears much more ambiguous than one might expect. I then critique a tendency to decontextualize and ʻdisorientʼ Safed through the traditional lenses of the center and re-situate the city in the context of the general intellectual ferment of the newly formed Sephardic diaspora in the eastern Mediterranean, as one of its emerging hubs. I ask how we should understand in ʻthe city of Kabbalistsʼ the figure of R. Hayyim Vital – the chief formulator of Lurianic Kabbalah but also a keen and inquisitive student of the sciences and an active physician, the two latter endeavours being more characteristic of the spirit of Salonica that is traditionally juxtaposed to the Safedian intellectual atmosphere. Moreover, how should we understand the assertion in recent scholarship that scientific discourses played a substantial role in shaping Lurianic Kabbalah? To answer, I explore the place and status of ʻalien wisdoms,ʼ – philosophy and the sciences, – among both Kabbalists and other, often neglected, prominent figures in ʻparticularisticʼ Safed. I find that these remained very much present in Safed throughout its flourishing period, although in a ʻperipheralʼ manner, both within the Safedian activity and in relation to their status in other centers such as Salonica. I conclude the article by suggesting that one significant possible explanation of the renowned Lurianic creativity may well stem from the ʻperipheral,ʼ non-reflective use of these discourses, rather than from avant-gardist daring, as is often assumed. Thus, I propose placing an emphasis on the significant contribution of the peripheral aspects of Safed to shaping the legacy of ʻthe city of Kabbalists.ʼ
Jama’a: an Interdisciplinary Journal of Middle East Studies, 2020
The article explores a peculiar dream described in Sefer ha-Ḥezyonot (The Book of Visions)—a coll... more The article explores a peculiar dream described in Sefer ha-Ḥezyonot (The Book of Visions)—a collection of events, dreams, and visions by and about R. Ḥayyim Vital (1542-1620), one of the most prominent Kabbalists operating in Safed, Jerusalem and Damascus. This dream, attributed to a figure described as “ha-palil Saʿad al-Din dgl, the impurity of all the Islamic nation”, depicts the dreamer finding both Muhammad and `Isa, the son of Miriam, degraded for misleading their believers, and declaring their religions empty and abrogated. The dream goes on to describe the Muslim masses searching for a “true religion”, which they find in Judaism with Vital as its head. The article offers a contextualization of the dream, and of the political fantasy that it raises, both in Vital’s life-long relationship with the pelilim, local Muslim clerics, and in the fervent Muslim millenarian discourse of the period and its Ottoman confessional contexts. The article suggests that the dream can be seen as a sensitive Jewish adaptation of a contemporary eschatological counter-narrative, Sufi or other, harnessing this to a Jewish conceptualization of the aspiration for change in the power relations and acknowledgment of the delicate nature of inter-religious relations in the empire.
The notion of consciousness change as a political concept has re-emerged as a central issue in re... more The notion of consciousness change as a political concept has re-emerged as a central issue in recent Israeli political discourse in diverse and seemingly remote groups. The following is a study of some of the contexts and implications of according primacy to consciousness change in political thought, through the tensions between the highly individualistic character of this discourse and its collective language and aims. I focus on one study case, Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, a key figure in both extreme settler groups and current New Age Hassidic revival. Analyzing his political writings, I explore his notion of consciousness as the true place of politics. Finally I return to the question of the context in which Rabbi Ginsburgh’s binding of the political to consciousness should be read, and propose liberal individualism, and the direct line it draws between the individual’s consciousness and that of the state, as an alternative hermeneutical perspective.
What changes in the conceptualization of God, the ultimate healer, once God himself becomes the o... more What changes in the conceptualization of God, the ultimate healer, once God himself becomes the object of healing? This article examines the delicate tensions between divine and human agency in the Lurianic kabbalah, focusing on its grammar of action, and the complex relations between the subjects and the objects of this action. Rather than analyzing the relations between the kabbalists and their God through their conscious perceptions, the article explores how these relations emerge from the Lurianic discursive configurations and describes the role of medical discourse in their shaping. I claim that in order to perceive the transformation in the image of God in this early modern kabbalistic corpus, we should place at the heart of our inquiry the questions of who the patient is in the Lurianic medical clinic and how the relations between the human and the divine protagonists of the Lurianic drama are woven in this clinic.
This article explores the epistemic nature of medieval and early modern ‘medicine of the soul’, a... more This article explores the epistemic nature of medieval and early modern ‘medicine of the soul’, and its practitioners. It asks to what extent this medicine (known also as ‘spiritual medicine’) relies on speciffically medical knowledge, thus going beyond a metaphor. A history of Jewish ‘soul medicine’ is provided and its roots in Greco-Roman medicine are outlined, while special attention is paid to the debates over its epistemic nature in Islamicate contexts. Two moments within Jewish thought are highlighted: the medieval Andalusian writings, epitomized by Maimonides’ choice of medicine as a model for his ethics, and Lurianic Kabbalah in early modernity. The article shows that the latter represents an extreme case of the medicalization of the role of the soul physician, and suggests some contexts to its uniqueness in this history.
Medicalizing Magic and Ethics: Rereading Lurianic Practice, 2022
Recent years witnessed a growing scholarly awareness to the centrality of practice among early mo... more Recent years witnessed a growing scholarly awareness to the centrality of practice among early modern kabbalists, and particularly in Lurianic Kabbalah. While the importance of human action to this branch of Safedian Kabbalah has long been recognized, the significance of its “over-detailed,” “bewildering,” practical discourse to the formation of its meaning has received much less attention. This article re-examines how R. Hayim Vital, Luria's closest disciple, shaped the Lurianic notion of action, through an exploration of one of the most highly technical and formulaic practical loci in his writings: The tikuney avonot (sin amendments or penitentials). The article proposes a reading of these practical formulae as a medical, or rather medicalized, discourse, closely related to the contents of Vital's life-long medical activity—a factor that has been hitherto almost entirely neglected in the Lurianic scholarship. The article analyses these penitentials through the two traditions that have been presented as lying at their basis, The magical prescriptive tradition and the pietistic (especially Ashkenazi), so-called "ethical," penitential literature. It demonstrates in what ways they are altered by the discursive presence of medicine, and moreover, how medical discourse provides a key to the uniqueness of the Lurianic discourse of action, as it arises from the details of these tikuney avonot. Thus, the article shows that in order to comprehend the rise in the place of action in Lurianic Kabbalah, one must acknowledge the oft-concealed contribution of epistemic shifts – such as the assimilation of medical discourse – to changing kabbalistic perceptions and attitudes.
The City of the Kabbalists? Sixteenth-Century Safed as Center and as Periphery, 2022
Assaf Tamari, "The City of the Kabbalists? Sixteenth-Century Safed as Center and as Periphery", Z... more Assaf Tamari, "The City of the Kabbalists? Sixteenth-Century Safed as Center and as Periphery", Zion 87.4 (2022): 505-547 Sixteenth-century Safed has long been considered in both scholarship and popular memory ʻthe center of the new Kabbalistic movement,ʼ as Gershom Scholem famously phrased it. Even though more recent scholarship has attenuated this view in different ways, Safed is still seen first and foremost through the prism of Kabbalah scholarship and as ʻthe city of Kabbalists.ʼ In this article, I re-evaluate Safed’s status as center and as periphery. First, I examine the actual ʻcenter consciousnessʼ of the Safedian elite during the city’s period of efflorescence and contrast it to dominant historiographical as well as traditional depictions. In this manner, I show the Safedian self-fashioning as a center to be primarily an expression (and a project) of the Halakhic elite, and of R. Joseph Karo in particular, formulated in halakhic terms. At the same time, the kabbalistic elite, assumed to exhibit the confidence of a triumphant center, appears much more ambiguous than one might expect. I then critique a tendency to decontextualize and ʻdisorientʼ Safed through the traditional lenses of the center and re-situate the city in the context of the general intellectual ferment of the newly formed Sephardic diaspora in the eastern Mediterranean, as one of its emerging hubs. I ask how we should understand in ʻthe city of Kabbalistsʼ the figure of R. Hayyim Vital – the chief formulator of Lurianic Kabbalah but also a keen and inquisitive student of the sciences and an active physician, the two latter endeavours being more characteristic of the spirit of Salonica that is traditionally juxtaposed to the Safedian intellectual atmosphere. Moreover, how should we understand the assertion in recent scholarship that scientific discourses played a substantial role in shaping Lurianic Kabbalah? To answer, I explore the place and status of ʻalien wisdoms,ʼ – philosophy and the sciences, – among both Kabbalists and other, often neglected, prominent figures in ʻparticularisticʼ Safed. I find that these remained very much present in Safed throughout its flourishing period, although in a ʻperipheralʼ manner, both within the Safedian activity and in relation to their status in other centers such as Salonica. I conclude the article by suggesting that one significant possible explanation of the renowned Lurianic creativity may well stem from the ʻperipheral,ʼ non-reflective use of these discourses, rather than from avant-gardist daring, as is often assumed. Thus, I propose placing an emphasis on the significant contribution of the peripheral aspects of Safed to shaping the legacy of ʻthe city of Kabbalists.ʼ
Jama’a: an Interdisciplinary Journal of Middle East Studies, 2020
The article explores a peculiar dream described in Sefer ha-Ḥezyonot (The Book of Visions)—a coll... more The article explores a peculiar dream described in Sefer ha-Ḥezyonot (The Book of Visions)—a collection of events, dreams, and visions by and about R. Ḥayyim Vital (1542-1620), one of the most prominent Kabbalists operating in Safed, Jerusalem and Damascus. This dream, attributed to a figure described as “ha-palil Saʿad al-Din dgl, the impurity of all the Islamic nation”, depicts the dreamer finding both Muhammad and `Isa, the son of Miriam, degraded for misleading their believers, and declaring their religions empty and abrogated. The dream goes on to describe the Muslim masses searching for a “true religion”, which they find in Judaism with Vital as its head. The article offers a contextualization of the dream, and of the political fantasy that it raises, both in Vital’s life-long relationship with the pelilim, local Muslim clerics, and in the fervent Muslim millenarian discourse of the period and its Ottoman confessional contexts. The article suggests that the dream can be seen as a sensitive Jewish adaptation of a contemporary eschatological counter-narrative, Sufi or other, harnessing this to a Jewish conceptualization of the aspiration for change in the power relations and acknowledgment of the delicate nature of inter-religious relations in the empire.
The notion of consciousness change as a political concept has re-emerged as a central issue in re... more The notion of consciousness change as a political concept has re-emerged as a central issue in recent Israeli political discourse in diverse and seemingly remote groups. The following is a study of some of the contexts and implications of according primacy to consciousness change in political thought, through the tensions between the highly individualistic character of this discourse and its collective language and aims. I focus on one study case, Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, a key figure in both extreme settler groups and current New Age Hassidic revival. Analyzing his political writings, I explore his notion of consciousness as the true place of politics. Finally I return to the question of the context in which Rabbi Ginsburgh’s binding of the political to consciousness should be read, and propose liberal individualism, and the direct line it draws between the individual’s consciousness and that of the state, as an alternative hermeneutical perspective.
השנה (תשפ"ב, 2022) ימלאו 500 שנה ללידתו של ר' משה קורדובירו (1570-1522), מגדולי מקובלי צפת, ומן ה... more השנה (תשפ"ב, 2022) ימלאו 500 שנה ללידתו של ר' משה קורדובירו (1570-1522), מגדולי מקובלי צפת, ומן ההוגים הפוריים בתולדות היהדות. האיגוד העולמי למדעי היהדות בשיתוף עם מכון בן-צבי לחקר קהילות ישראל במזרח מתכבדים להזמין חוקרות וחוקרים העוסקים בהגותו ובהקשריה הרחבים להגיש הצעות לכנס שיתקיים במסגרת הקונגרס העולמי למדעי היהדות בין התאריכים 8–12 באוגוסט ויוקדש לר' משה קורדובירו (להלן: רמ"ק), יצירתו ומורשתו. חיבוריו המקיפים והיסודיים של רמ"ק עוסקים בכל תחומי הקיום האנושי והאלוהי כאחד. בכלל אלה נמנים 'פרדס רימונים', מספרי היסוד של תורת הקבלה; 'אור יקר', פירושו המקיף לספרות הזוהר ולספר יצירה; עיינות ספר 'אילימה' העוסקים בדמות האל, העולמות, התורה והאדם; פירושו לתפילות 'תפילה למשה' הכולל תורת כוונות מורכבת. חיבוריו הקצרים של רמ״ק, ׳ספר גרושין׳, ׳אור נערב׳ ו׳תומר דבורה׳ ורשימת ההנהגות שלו מלמדים על חיי הרוח ועל אורח החיים שלו ושל חבריו בצפת. כתביו של רמ"ק כוללים התמודדות מעמיקה ומקורית עם סוגיות יסוד המעסיקות את היהדות בת זמנו, ומגלים את אחד ההוגים המרשימים ביותר במסגרת התסיסה הרוחנית של היהודים באימפריה העות'מאנית בראשית העת החדשה. בשנים האחרונות אנו עדים לעניין מחקרי גובר בדמותו ובהגותו של רמ"ק. חוקרות וחוקרים רבים שבים לבחון את כתביו, מאירים צדדים לא מוכרים בקבלתו, ומעריכים מחדש את מקומו בעיצוב מורשתה של צפת והחותם שהטביעה על עיצוב המודרניות היהודית. הכנס מבקש לתת ביטוי למגמות השונות במחקר העכשווי של רמ"ק ויצירתו ממגוון רחב של נקודות מבט והקשרים. הכנס יתמקד בנושאים הקשורים לחייו של רמ"ק, לסביבתו, לפועלו, ליצירתו ולהשפעתה, כמו גם להקשרים שבתוכם פעל. נשקול לפיכך בחיוב גם קבלתן של הרצאות על דמויות ונושאים משיקים. הצעות להרצאות (עד 250 מילה) יש להגיש באמצעות אתר הקונגרס העולמי עד ליום ד', כ"ז בכסלו תשפ"ב (1 בדצמבר 2021). יש להגיש את ההצעות במסגרת החטיבה "Cordovero Conference - כנס רמ״ק". הוראות מפורטות על אופן ההגשה ניתן לקרוא באתר האיגוד. לשאלות ולבירורים, נא לפנות למייל הוועדה המארגנת: [email protected]. אם תתקבל חסות לכנס, יתאפשר מימון עלויות ההרשמה לקונגרס לחלק מן המרצות והמרצים. הוועדה האקדמית: פרופ' משה אידל, פרופ' בעז הוס, פרופ' ברכה זק, פרופ' יוסי חיות, פרופ' מנחם לורברבוים. מזכיר הוועדה: ד"ר אסף תמרי
In commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the death of R. Hayyim Vital (1542-1620), the Goldst... more In commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the death of R. Hayyim Vital (1542-1620), the Goldstein-Goren International Center for Jewish Thought at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, the Ben Zvi Institute for the Study of Jewish Communities in the East, and the World Union of Jewish Studies will hold a three-day conference via ZOOM dedicated to Vital and his world. Vital is known first and foremost as the chief disciple of R. Isaac Luria. Luria himself wrote little; Vital is thus responsible to a large extent for what is now known as “Lurianic Kabbalah.” As a paragon of the sixteenth-century Safed renaissance, many aspects of Jewish life in Palestine and Syria are imbricated in his life and thought in this critical chapter of early modern Jewish history. Alongside his immense and singular contribution to the development of the Kabbalah, the breadth and diversity of Vital’s interests are evident in his rich corpus of writings. These are devoted to a plethora of topics and express the variegated aspects of his activity over many decades in Safed, Jerusalem, and Damascus. The study of Vital’s life and work may thus shed light on many facets of contemporary Ottoman Jewish society. The fifteen sessions of the conference will cover many aspects of the activity of Vital and his contemporaries, as well as the history of the reception of his intellectual legacy in the modern and early modern periods. Sessions include: Safedian Modes of Fashioning Prominent Figures | Crossroads in the Formations of Kabbalistic Knowledge | Vital, Between Cordovero and Luria: A Reappraisal | Vital’s Book of Visions and Its Early and Later Contexts | Safedian Praxis and Its Contexts | Safed Beyond the Text: Reality and Imagination | Metempsychosis and the Fate of the Soul | Vital the Doubtful Messiah | Safed’s Culture of the Book | The Formation of Lurianic Kabbalah Across Regions | From Vilna to Jerusalem: Reading Vital in Modern Times | Vital in a Philosophical Tone Papers will be delivered in both Hebrew and English For details (including list of English papers), see: https://sites.google.com/view/vital400/en | For further inquiries: [email protected]. Academic Committee: Prof. Boaz Huss, Prof. Bracha Sack, Prof. J. H. Chajes, Dr. Hanan Harif, Prof. Ronit Meroz, Prof. Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin. Committee secretary: Dr. Assaf Tamari
במלאת 400 שנים לפטירתו של ר' חיים ויטאל (1620-1542), המרכז הבינלאומי למחשבת ישראל ע"ש גולדשטיין-ג... more במלאת 400 שנים לפטירתו של ר' חיים ויטאל (1620-1542), המרכז הבינלאומי למחשבת ישראל ע"ש גולדשטיין-גורן באוניברסיטת בן־גוריון בנגב ומכון בן־צבי לחקר קהילות ישראל במזרח בירושלים, מתכבדים להזמינכן/ם להגיש הצעות לכנס שיוקדש לדמותו ולהקשריה.
עקב מגיפת הקורונה והמצב המיוחד בו כולנו מצויים, הוחלט על הארכת המועד האחרון להגשת הצעות לכנס עד ל-15/6
אפשרות לקיום הרצאות מקוונות תישקל בהתאם להתפתחויות הוועדה האקדמית: פרופ' בעז הוס, פרופ' ברכה זק, פרופ' יוסי חיות, ד"ר חנן חריף, פרופ' רונית מרוז ופרופ' אמנון (נונו) רז-קרקוצקין. מזכיר הוועדה: ד"ר אסף תמרי.
Assaf Tamari, God as Patient: The Medical Discourse of Lurianic Kabbalah, Jerusalem: Magnes Press... more Assaf Tamari, God as Patient: The Medical Discourse of Lurianic Kabbalah, Jerusalem: Magnes Press and Van Leer Institute Press, 2023
Shi'ur Komah: An Issue commemorating the 500th year of R. Moses Cordovero's birth 2022/5782 marks... more Shi'ur Komah: An Issue commemorating the 500th year of R. Moses Cordovero's birth 2022/5782 marks the 500 th anniversary of the birth of R. Moses Cordovero (1522-1570), one of the key figures in the Safedian sixteenth-century kabbalistic renaissance and one of the most proliferous writers in the history of Jewish thought. Cordovero's voluminous and comprehensive literary corpus deals with the full plethora of topics concerning both human life and the Divine. It reveals one of the most impressive intellectual endeavors of his era and places him among the central Jewish thinkers of the early modern Ottoman empire. Recent years have seen a growing scholarly interest in Cordovero's life and thought. Scholars are steadily shedding light on previously obscure aspects of his Kabbalah and reassessing his place in the legacy of Safed and its impact on Jewish modernity. This special issue aims to advance the diverse trends of current research and to give expression to the plenitude of relevant perspectives and contexts. Following the conference devoted to Cordovero's thought and legacy, held as part of the 18 th World Congress of Jewish Studies, in cooperation with Ben-Zvi Institute for the Study of Jewish Communities in the East, we invite scholars to submit articles, in either Hebrew or English, to the issue dedicated to Cordovero's work, and to its impact and contexts. The issue will commemorate Prof. Bracha Sack's 90 th birthday, acknowledging her longstanding exceptional contribution to the study of Cordovero.
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Sixteenth-century Safed has long been considered in both scholarship and popular memory ʻthe center of the new Kabbalistic movement,ʼ as Gershom Scholem famously phrased it. Even though more recent scholarship has attenuated this view in different ways, Safed is still seen first and foremost through the prism of Kabbalah scholarship and as ʻthe city of Kabbalists.ʼ In this article, I re-evaluate Safed’s status as center and as periphery. First, I examine the actual ʻcenter consciousnessʼ of the Safedian elite during the city’s period of efflorescence and contrast it to dominant historiographical as well as traditional depictions. In this manner, I show the Safedian self-fashioning as a center to be primarily an expression (and a project) of the Halakhic elite, and of R. Joseph Karo in particular, formulated in halakhic terms. At the same time, the kabbalistic elite, assumed to exhibit the confidence of a triumphant center, appears much more ambiguous than one might expect. I then critique a tendency to decontextualize and ʻdisorientʼ Safed through the traditional lenses of the center and re-situate the city in the context of the general intellectual ferment of the newly formed Sephardic diaspora in the eastern Mediterranean, as one of its emerging hubs. I ask how we should understand in ʻthe city of Kabbalistsʼ the figure of R. Hayyim Vital – the chief formulator of Lurianic Kabbalah but also a keen and inquisitive student of the sciences and an active physician, the two latter endeavours being more characteristic of the spirit of Salonica that is traditionally juxtaposed to the Safedian intellectual atmosphere. Moreover, how should we understand the assertion in recent scholarship that scientific discourses played a substantial role in shaping Lurianic Kabbalah? To answer, I explore the place and status of ʻalien wisdoms,ʼ – philosophy and the sciences, – among both Kabbalists and other, often neglected, prominent figures in ʻparticularisticʼ Safed. I find that these remained very much present in Safed throughout its flourishing period, although in a ʻperipheralʼ manner, both within the Safedian activity and in relation to their status in other centers such as Salonica. I conclude the article by suggesting that one significant possible explanation of the renowned Lurianic creativity may well stem from the ʻperipheral,ʼ non-reflective use of these discourses, rather than from avant-gardist daring, as is often assumed. Thus, I propose placing an emphasis on the significant contribution of the peripheral aspects of Safed to shaping the legacy of ʻthe city of Kabbalists.ʼ
relations in the empire.
Sixteenth-century Safed has long been considered in both scholarship and popular memory ʻthe center of the new Kabbalistic movement,ʼ as Gershom Scholem famously phrased it. Even though more recent scholarship has attenuated this view in different ways, Safed is still seen first and foremost through the prism of Kabbalah scholarship and as ʻthe city of Kabbalists.ʼ In this article, I re-evaluate Safed’s status as center and as periphery. First, I examine the actual ʻcenter consciousnessʼ of the Safedian elite during the city’s period of efflorescence and contrast it to dominant historiographical as well as traditional depictions. In this manner, I show the Safedian self-fashioning as a center to be primarily an expression (and a project) of the Halakhic elite, and of R. Joseph Karo in particular, formulated in halakhic terms. At the same time, the kabbalistic elite, assumed to exhibit the confidence of a triumphant center, appears much more ambiguous than one might expect. I then critique a tendency to decontextualize and ʻdisorientʼ Safed through the traditional lenses of the center and re-situate the city in the context of the general intellectual ferment of the newly formed Sephardic diaspora in the eastern Mediterranean, as one of its emerging hubs. I ask how we should understand in ʻthe city of Kabbalistsʼ the figure of R. Hayyim Vital – the chief formulator of Lurianic Kabbalah but also a keen and inquisitive student of the sciences and an active physician, the two latter endeavours being more characteristic of the spirit of Salonica that is traditionally juxtaposed to the Safedian intellectual atmosphere. Moreover, how should we understand the assertion in recent scholarship that scientific discourses played a substantial role in shaping Lurianic Kabbalah? To answer, I explore the place and status of ʻalien wisdoms,ʼ – philosophy and the sciences, – among both Kabbalists and other, often neglected, prominent figures in ʻparticularisticʼ Safed. I find that these remained very much present in Safed throughout its flourishing period, although in a ʻperipheralʼ manner, both within the Safedian activity and in relation to their status in other centers such as Salonica. I conclude the article by suggesting that one significant possible explanation of the renowned Lurianic creativity may well stem from the ʻperipheral,ʼ non-reflective use of these discourses, rather than from avant-gardist daring, as is often assumed. Thus, I propose placing an emphasis on the significant contribution of the peripheral aspects of Safed to shaping the legacy of ʻthe city of Kabbalists.ʼ
relations in the empire.
חיבוריו המקיפים והיסודיים של רמ"ק עוסקים בכל תחומי הקיום האנושי והאלוהי כאחד. בכלל אלה נמנים 'פרדס רימונים', מספרי היסוד של תורת הקבלה; 'אור יקר', פירושו המקיף לספרות הזוהר ולספר יצירה; עיינות ספר 'אילימה' העוסקים בדמות האל, העולמות, התורה והאדם; פירושו לתפילות 'תפילה למשה' הכולל תורת כוונות מורכבת. חיבוריו הקצרים של רמ״ק, ׳ספר גרושין׳, ׳אור נערב׳ ו׳תומר דבורה׳ ורשימת ההנהגות שלו מלמדים על חיי הרוח ועל אורח החיים שלו ושל חבריו בצפת. כתביו של רמ"ק כוללים התמודדות מעמיקה ומקורית עם סוגיות יסוד המעסיקות את היהדות בת זמנו, ומגלים את אחד ההוגים המרשימים ביותר במסגרת התסיסה הרוחנית של היהודים באימפריה העות'מאנית בראשית העת החדשה.
בשנים האחרונות אנו עדים לעניין מחקרי גובר בדמותו ובהגותו של רמ"ק. חוקרות וחוקרים רבים שבים לבחון את כתביו, מאירים צדדים לא מוכרים בקבלתו, ומעריכים מחדש את מקומו בעיצוב מורשתה של צפת והחותם שהטביעה על עיצוב המודרניות היהודית. הכנס מבקש לתת ביטוי למגמות השונות במחקר העכשווי של רמ"ק ויצירתו ממגוון רחב של נקודות מבט והקשרים. הכנס יתמקד בנושאים הקשורים לחייו של רמ"ק, לסביבתו, לפועלו, ליצירתו ולהשפעתה, כמו גם להקשרים שבתוכם פעל. נשקול לפיכך בחיוב גם קבלתן של הרצאות על דמויות ונושאים משיקים.
הצעות להרצאות (עד 250 מילה) יש להגיש באמצעות אתר הקונגרס העולמי עד ליום ד', כ"ז בכסלו תשפ"ב (1 בדצמבר 2021). יש להגיש את ההצעות במסגרת החטיבה "Cordovero Conference - כנס רמ״ק". הוראות מפורטות על אופן ההגשה ניתן לקרוא באתר האיגוד. לשאלות ולבירורים, נא לפנות למייל הוועדה המארגנת: [email protected].
אם תתקבל חסות לכנס, יתאפשר מימון עלויות ההרשמה לקונגרס לחלק מן המרצות והמרצים.
הוועדה האקדמית: פרופ' משה אידל, פרופ' בעז הוס, פרופ' ברכה זק, פרופ' יוסי חיות, פרופ' מנחם לורברבוים.
מזכיר הוועדה: ד"ר אסף תמרי
Vital is known first and foremost as the chief disciple of R. Isaac Luria. Luria himself wrote little; Vital is thus responsible to a large extent for what is now known as “Lurianic Kabbalah.” As a paragon of the sixteenth-century Safed renaissance, many aspects of Jewish life in Palestine and Syria are imbricated in his life and thought in this critical chapter of early modern Jewish history. Alongside his immense and singular contribution to the development of the Kabbalah, the breadth and diversity of Vital’s interests are evident in his rich corpus of writings. These are devoted to a plethora of topics and express the variegated aspects of his activity over many decades in Safed, Jerusalem, and Damascus. The study of Vital’s life and work may thus shed light on many facets of contemporary Ottoman Jewish society.
The fifteen sessions of the conference will cover many aspects of the activity of Vital and his contemporaries, as well as the history of the reception of his intellectual legacy in the modern and early modern periods.
Sessions include:
Safedian Modes of Fashioning Prominent Figures | Crossroads in the Formations of Kabbalistic Knowledge | Vital, Between Cordovero and Luria: A Reappraisal | Vital’s Book of Visions and Its Early and Later Contexts | Safedian Praxis and Its Contexts | Safed Beyond the Text: Reality and Imagination | Metempsychosis and the Fate of the Soul | Vital the Doubtful Messiah | Safed’s Culture of the Book | The Formation of Lurianic Kabbalah Across Regions | From Vilna to Jerusalem: Reading Vital in Modern Times | Vital in a Philosophical Tone
Papers will be delivered in both Hebrew and English
For details (including list of English papers), see: https://sites.google.com/view/vital400/en | For further inquiries: [email protected].
Academic Committee: Prof. Boaz Huss, Prof. Bracha Sack, Prof. J. H. Chajes, Dr. Hanan Harif, Prof. Ronit Meroz, Prof. Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin. Committee secretary: Dr. Assaf Tamari
עקב מגיפת הקורונה והמצב המיוחד בו כולנו מצויים, הוחלט על הארכת המועד האחרון להגשת הצעות לכנס עד ל-15/6
אפשרות לקיום הרצאות מקוונות תישקל בהתאם להתפתחויות
הוועדה האקדמית: פרופ' בעז הוס, פרופ' ברכה זק, פרופ' יוסי חיות, ד"ר חנן חריף,
פרופ' רונית מרוז ופרופ' אמנון (נונו) רז-קרקוצקין.
מזכיר הוועדה: ד"ר אסף תמרי.
https://www.magnespress.co.il/book/%D7%94%D7%90%D7%9C_%D7%9B%D7%9E%D7%98%D7%95%D7%A4%D7%9C_%D7%95%D7%94%D7%A7%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%A7%D7%94_%D7%A9%D7%9C_%D7%94%D7%9E%D7%A7%D7%95%D7%91%D7%9C-8497