Jewish Mysticism and the Crusades- Tzfat Tiyul

A few days ago Kitat Maayan had the opprotunity to visit several historical sites in northern Israel, including a crusader fortress from 1168, and Tzfat's Artisan district with temples dating back 500 years.

The day started with a four hour bus ride to the North of Israel. We reached Emek Yizrael and then turned west and headed for the Kineret. We reached our first stop at about 11:30 at a place called Belvoire. At first we couldn't figure out why it was called Belvoire, which means 'pretty view', but it .became quite obvious when we got a bit closer to the fortress

The fortress was built in Israel during the Crusader kingdom. It was home to a few dozen knights nearly 900 years ago. Even though the crusader kingdom was destroyed in 1187, this fortress managed to hold out for 18 months after the fall of the kingdom, despite being under continuous assault from the Muslims. During this time period back in Europe, the Silver Age for Ashkenaz Jewry had come to an end. Although the Crusader Kindom would not be established until 1099, Ashkenaz Jewry had already begun to be prosecuted. The first major stirrings of antisemitism in Franco-Germany began when Pope Urban II gave a speech in France in 1095. In his speech he called for the liberation of the Holy Land from the Muslims, and stirred up feelings of religious pride in many Christians. Inspired by the words of the Pope, Christian peasants began to march through the land massacring Jewish communities in what are now called the Tatnu massacres, because of the Jewish calendar year in which they occurred. Because European Jews living in Kehilot K'doshot (holy communities) were extremely prosperous, the peasants of the christian feudal system were enraged. They saw this as a direct contradiction to the witness theory, which stated that instead of killing the Jews for their involvement in the death of Jesus, they should be kept alive so that they could fail and wither while watching Christianity blossom and succeed. 

Before leaving for lunch at kibbutz Affiqim, we stopped for a class picture just outside the second gate of the fortress.

After a frankly not-so-great lunch at kibutz Affiqim, we headed over to Tzfat to learn about the influx of Sephadic Jews and the advent of Jewish Mysticism. Mysticism is the idea of being able to transcend worlds to reach a plane of elevated spirituality. Most religions have some sort of mystical element, and it was in 16th century Tzfat that Jewish mysticism, or Kabalah was developed. 

In the 11th century, Christians began to reconquer Spain from the Muslims. In 1391 a horrible wave of antisemitic violence swept the newly Christian country, resulting in the forced baptisms of some Jews, while others were simply burned at the stake,. In 1492 the Jews were officially kicked out of Spain, ending the Spanish Inquisition. Jews fled to the Ottoman Empire, which still recognized them as a well educated group of people who would be an economic asset. Many Jews moved to Turkey and Greece, but a significant portion returned to Israel. A large Jewish community had been developing in Tzfat for quite some time at this point, and was the choice destination of many immigrant Jews. Among the growing Jewish community in Tzfat, several great Rabbis emerged, whose ideas still greatly influence us today. 

The three major rabbis in the mid 16th century in Tzfat who helped shape kabalah as we know it are Rabbi Yosef Karo, Rabbi Moshe Kordoverah, and H'Ari HaKadosh. Rabbi Yosef Karo was an expert in Jewish law, or halachah. He was a major advocate for traditional Judaism and wrote the Shulchan Aruch, or the set table. It was a compilation of Jewish texts designed to make following Jewish law as clear and easy as possible. Rabbi Moshe Kordoverah was a philosopher. Of the rabbis on this list, Moshe is my favorite. He was a proponent of a a subjective interpretation of Jewish texts,including the nature of god. Moshe said that god created the world and then disappeared. His interpretation of god suggested that god was more of a concept than an omnipotent deity. He said that there are an infinite level of moral steps to transcend to reach god, and that the goal of Judaism was just to make the world a better place. The final Rabbi is H'Ari HaKadosh, or in English, the Holy Lion. The Lion was the father of Kabalah as we know it today. He created it by combining the ideologies of the other two rabbis to allow him to transcend to a higher moral plane through the study of Torah and the following of Jewish laws. A famous legend says that the Lion wanted to stand on the shoulders of the other two rabbis and bring down the Messiah. Around this time Kabbalat Shabbat was thought up, and Shlomo Ha'Levi, a friend of Moshe's wrote L'cha Dodi, a staple of the Kabbalat Shabbat service

My question for you all, is which of the three Rabbis do you relate to the most, and why? Which Rabbi do you think had the biggest impact on modern Judaism?