Magnes Press, 1992, vol. 2, 478p
HUC Library
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This
work is a compilation, a series of essays. Volume 1 address pre-expulsion,
this volume focuses on post-expulsion. Very valuable compilation of essays,
touching on issues historical, intellectual, and cultural. Included in
this work is a discussion of Spanish Kabbalah, Yosef Caro, Shabbatai Zvi.
In this study it shows how decades after expulsion, world of Abarbanel
and Kabbalists continues. Kabbalists went to Safed, this is pre-Luria.
Many went to Turkey.
List of specific chapters:
- Joseph Hacker, "The Sephardim in the Ottoman Empire in the Sixteenth Century",
pp. 109-133.
- Moshe Idel, "Spanish Kabbalah after the Expulsion",
166-178.
- R.J. Zwi Weblowsky, "R. Josph Car, Solomon Molcho, Don Joseph Nasi,",
179-191
- Yosef Kaplan, "The Intellectual Ferment in the Spanish-Portuguese Community
of Seventeenth Century Amsterdam", 288-314.
- Elena Romero, "Literary Creation in the Sefardi
Diaspora."
There is an interesting Letter of Alkabeltz Shavuot
night (Tikkun) with Caro. This nicely opens questions to Caro's connection
to the world of mysticism. In Constantinople, Sh'ni Luchot ha Brit was
written. The College of Moshe Cordovero (pre-Luria) was established. Alkabetz
refers to Josef Caro as (the master). An Angel spoke through Caro who had
a connection with the "above world".
Relevance: Sephardim that left due to the expulsion continued their approach
to Judaism. Kabbalah and ethics are synthesized. Main proponent to popularity
in modernity [is the reliance on ethics]. This circle of intellectuals are the
inheritors of Sepharad. Lurianic Kabbalah and North African Sharabi are filled
which is Baroque in complexity. Kabbalah story stops in 14th Century, then Luria,
then Shabbatai Tzvi. Idel in this volume explains that Scholem says Messianism
of Luria is a direct response of expulsion, mid 16th Century no more pronounced
than prior period. For Idel not a change, messianism due to expulsion but explosion
of textual activity and creativity is like writing down oral Torah. It is a preservation
of what was oral due to social and historical circumstances
Sephardic Legacy provides continuity of Sephardi into Diaspora. Dramatizes power
of legacy. Direct line to Sephardi tradition.
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